Shine On My Name
by Dracoisalooker76
Summary: Katniss and Peeta grow up in the different districts, in eleven parts.
1. Part I: District One

_Hi everyone! This story started off as a submission for Prompts in Panem's Round Two Day Seven AU challenge. I wanted to look at how Katniss and Peeta would be in the different districts. Part II (District Two) was the submission to the challenge and I'm just tweaking some of the grammar mistakes before I post it here. This will ultimately contain eleven or so parts, one for each district. I hope you all enjoy!_

_Warnings for this story: I have rated it T, however, it should be read as a mature T. There is nothing explicit, but there is mention of unwanted sexual attention and in later parts there will be implied situations for sex, major character death, and violence. It toes the line, so please realize this prior to reading if that would make you uncomfortable._

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._

* * *

**Shine On My Name**

* * *

Part I

* * *

"You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter."

James 5:5, New International Version (1984)

* * *

_District One_

* * *

Her name is stupid.

It was one of her father's ideas to name his daughters after _flowers._ But none of the other little girls are named for flowers, so on the first day of school, once her mother drops her off, she decides to change her name. It's ugly anyway. She looks around at the other names on the desks and when she gets to her own she crosses out Katniss and writes Gemma, her neighbor's name.

A name much more suitable to be sitting beside a girl named Lux and a boy called Fame.

The teacher reads role call and Katniss is surprised to hear about a boy named Peeta. The rest of the class chuckles at the name, but Peeta shrugs and tells the class he was named after his father's favorite bread. And, as a joke, he mentions that his brother is Rye.

So, when the teacher reads her name from the desks, Katniss doesn't feel so terrible when she explains that her name is a flower her father bought for her mother. A few of the girls even sigh. She's named after a gift. How beautiful. Katniss the gift.

She makes it her mission to thank Peeta Mellark at recess but she can't seem to muster the courage to go up to him. In the end, it's him that goes up to her.

"I think your name is really pretty," Peeta says.

It's the first time anyone beside her dad has said that.

* * *

The dress is stupid.

Her mother insists that it's adorable, but Katniss doesn't like plaid. Lux, the unofficial _it_ girl, has proclaimed that plaid is terrible and anyone wearing it will be ridiculed. Katniss has tried to explain this to her mother, but the argument falls on deaf ears. She is wearing a red plaid dress to school.

"Own it," her mother says when she drops her off.

Katniss blinks before walking into school. Peeta is standing by the water fountain with a group of boys and he smiles at her. When she walks over to him, he tugs on one of her braids – despite the other boys telling him that he'll get cooties for touching her – and compliments her on her dress.

She skips passed Lux. She owns it. She doesn't understand the effect she has.

The next day every little girl in kindergarten is wearing plaid.

* * *

Each year, they compete in a pageant. Katniss has only been looking forward to this for her _whole_ life and now that she's in kindergarten she can finally compete. Although it doesn't really count, if she wins she still gets a sash and a tiny plastic crown. When she's seventeen, and if she wins, she'll get a real crown. One made of gold and crusted in diamonds.

She practices her strut for weeks, trying to perfect it. At recess, she pulls Peeta away to watch her because he's the only one to give her an honest opinion. The other girls will lie to preserve their own chances of winning. But Peeta is honest and he points out flaws in her steps in such a kind way that Katniss doesn't even get offended like she does when Mother points it out.

"I think you'll win," Peeta declares on their third day of practice.

The pageants for the younger grades are only held in their classrooms, but Katniss doesn't mind. She focuses on Peeta as she sways her hips and sticks her head high. Her teacher praises her and, when she wins, she gets a gold sticker next to her name on the pageant board at the main office.

Later that day, the entire district convenes to watch the real one. Because they're mad at her for winning, Katniss's friends don't sit beside her, but she is fine sitting with Peeta. They watch the pageant, whispering about the girls that walk the stage outside the Justice Building. Peeta likes the girl in the orange dress. Katniss doesn't. She favors the girl in green.

The girl that wins, a beautiful blonde named Cashmere, gets the crown placed on her head. Everyone begins to whisper about how she is the most beautiful girl in the district. The mayor escorts her off stage and into a car. On her way out of the square, Katniss notices the car driving out toward district boundaries.

She wonders about what exactly happens when you win.

* * *

Cashmere disappears entirely from school. A month later, school is canceled for the girls for a day. When she sees him next, Peeta tells her that school was very odd. They took his blood and made him smile in many different ways for photographs. After, the teachers all put the information in special folders, and they had to watch the seventeen-year-old boys give speeches. The teachers had to vote on which was best. Then, a boy was taken in a car in the same direction as Cashmere. He, like Cashmere, disappeared.

About a year later, the two reappear for the reaping. They both volunteer.

* * *

In the first grade, they learn about what an immense honor it is to volunteer for the Hunger Games. Every child should strive to be pretty enough and strong enough to go. The victor is bathed in riches, but Katniss doesn't know if she wants to leave home. She loves her parents and her sister too much to leave for a year to train.

"Do you want to volunteer?" Katniss asks Peeta on the playground one day.

He shrugs. "I dunno," he says. He sips on a juice box and kicks sand with his new shoes that are still stiff. "I think I got enough."

Yesterday, her mother was complaining that she didn't have enough jewels to stick to Primrose's headband. If she won, Prim's headband would be the prettiest in the class. She decides it's a good thing that Peeta doesn't want to volunteer because she does and she couldn't bear it if he was her district partner.

There can be only one victor after all.

* * *

That year, Finnick Odair wins. Her district hates him. No one has ever outshone their tributes in beauty before, and _yet_. He's the youngest victor in the history of the Hunger Games. And he's from _Four_! It would have been easier to swallow if he had at least been from Two. But Four is so far away. It's nearly an outlying.

They change the rules. They move the pageant. The girls that strut across the stage can be any age within the reaping limits. They choose a fourteen year old to train up for eventual volunteering, as well as the volunteer for the Sixty-sixth Games.

* * *

There are really no such things as friends in District One. There are cliques and there are popularity wars. By the time they are in the sixth grade, she and Peeta are the top of the top. Lux hangs off her hip as her second-in-command, but Katniss knows that she's only doing it in hopes of one day overtaking her role. Katniss likes how everyone envies her. That way, she doesn't have to decide who's really her friend and who's just her friend for the glory. This way, she _knows _none of them are her friends.

It's different for Peeta.

Everyone loves him. The teachers fawn over his sophistication. The other boys in class always invite him to play with them. When they turn twelve, it's like he's magically turned on some switch and all the girls insist on sitting beside him at the lunch table. They bat their eyelashes. They scheme and try to wiggle their way in between the golden duo.

Although her eyes are gray, Katniss becomes a green-eyed monster.

* * *

She has never been a fan of human affection. Her mother is cold and distant. Her father works long days away from home and is often too tired to play with his daughters because he has to go out like all the other men in the district do after work. They go to the bars and drink and pretend they aren't as bad off as those in the outlying districts. Because they _aren't_. They just aren't.

(But they are.)

When Lux lets her fingers slide a little too far up Peeta's arm during lunch, Katniss's silver eyes turn emerald again. She stands from her seat and walks around to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and kisses the top of his head, her lips finding his scalp hidden under his valley of golden curls. Peeta turns as red as a ruby and his eyes widen in surprise.

Lux glares at her, but backs off nonetheless.

* * *

She doesn't know what she's done, but Peeta avoids her the rest of the day. He even makes the excuse that he has to stay behind to get help on his schoolwork so he can't walk her and Prim home. She almost calls him out, but doesn't know what to say when she notices his sapphire eyes look like a puddle. He's upset.

"Peeta!" Prim says, wrapping her arms around his waist in greeting, her ivory skin blending with his. "Can we go now?"

Peeta shakes his head and disentangles himself, telling her he can't walk them home. Prim's lip starts to quiver. At eight, she's nearly as attached to Peeta as Katniss herself and Prim doesn't appreciate rejection. She's a gentle soul, so uncommon and rare in One, and Katniss can see already that her little heart is breaking.

So can Peeta, and Katniss knows this is why he relents.

Prim skips between them, bouncing without a care in the world. She holds onto their hands, the polish on her fingernails shimmering like diamonds in the crisp sunlight. When they arrive at their home, Prim rushes inside, claiming she has to tell Mother about the kitten she's been taking care of under the playground for the last few days. She says someone must have gotten rid of it because it's ugly.

(_Only Prim_, Katniss thinks, _would appreciate an ugly cat._)

Peeta rubs the back of his neck once she disappears inside and looks at Katniss with his cheeks tinged like garnets. "What was lunch today?" he asks. He has a hopeful undertone that Katniss doesn't quite understand. "Why did you kiss me?"

"You're my best friend and Lux was trying to take you away," she says.

Peeta's eyes look down at his feet. He sighs and it feels like her heart is being scratched, like a diamond being checked if it's real. "That's what I though," he murmurs.

"Do you want to play?" Katniss asks, not liking his sullen appearance. He's usually bright and cheery. She doesn't like seeing him sad.

"I don't think I should," he says. "I have to go home."

When he leaves he doesn't look up, but she squints hard enough, she can see a tiny wet mark on the ground where he stood.

* * *

She doesn't understand why he isn't talking to her. She didn't do anything wrong. He is hers. But, apparently that isn't the case. He eats lunch with the boys and doesn't wait for Katniss after school.

She's glad Prim is too preoccupied to notice. Her sister giggles fiercely while holding her coat oddly, her hands cupping her stomach, which is slightly extended. Katniss raises an eyebrow and Prim giggles more. When her sister's stomach growls, it sounds like a cat's meow.

* * *

It is the first time that she hasn't won the pageant and it is her fall from grace.

When she walks passed the boys, they all throw their heads back and make a sound with the back of their throats. _Choke_. She choked. She won all of the fake pageants and then the first year she's eligible to actually win it she blows it. All because she froze when she saw Peeta watching her. She misses him.

Lux won their age group. She was taken. Katniss doesn't mind. She never liked her anyway.

She doesn't like to cry, but when some of the older boys begin to pick on her she finds herself losing confidence. She always had such an effect on everyone, even the boys like Marvel who were a year ahead of her. But, with Marvel off to train, his group of cronies pull at her braids and one even tries to claim her as a plaything. She doesn't like it.

She screams during upper school recess when a boy from her class, Fame, tells her that she's worth as much as dirt.

She's just turned thirteen. Her body is changing in ways she doesn't quite understand. Peeta is gone. He spends his days on the other side of the yard from her. She misses him, his gentleness, his unwavering kindness so rare amongst the boys in her district. Fame kisses her on the lips, sticks his hands in her shirt, but then someone comes up behind him and chucks him across the yard.

They get sent to the principal's office together. Peeta's knuckles are the color of rubies, the liquid from Fame's broken nose dripping to the floor. Katniss's braid is falling out from her attempts to make them stop.

The principal sighs and shakes his head at them. "What am I going to do with you two?" he asks.

Neither of them answers.

* * *

Her parents have never been completely attentive. It's worse now. Her father doesn't come home for days in a row and her mother wanders around the district gossiping. Neither of them really knows what's going on with their daughters. If they did, they would have noticed Buttercup, the world's ugliest cat, has now taken up permanent residency in Primrose's room.

And that Katniss, by the time she's fourteen, does not sleep by herself.

No one in District One marries for love. There is no such thing. People are paired based on ranking systems arranged through the pageants. Top place go to the Games, and then after that everyone marries their equal. It makes things simpler. Love is a weakness, something still indulged in by those in the outlying districts, and they are _better_ than that.

Peeta's parents are just as inattentive as hers, so it's easy for him to sneak out in the night and climb up her window. Katniss likes the thrill of it. Something just sort of snapped in them after the incident with Fame. Peeta kissed her that day and it had been awkward and wet, but nice. So very nice. A fire in the pit of her stomach grew and grew and she knew she wanted another. She's from One. She's greedy. She took another. And another. And another.

People in the schoolyard whisper about them, but they're always careful. They know not to hold hands in front of people or kiss in public. In some ways, she's glad that Peeta was angry with her that day when they were twelve. If he hadn't of been, she probably would have won and then she'd be gone. And she wouldn't be feeling like this.

When she's sixteen, she asks, "When did you know?"

"That I loved you?" he asks. She nods her head. He pretends to think for a moment and she hits his arm with her fist. "The second day of school. When you wore the red plaid dress and you didn't care what anyone else thought. It only grew from there."

"Is that why you got mad at me when I kissed your head?"

He nods. "I was upset that you didn't love me back."

"I do now," she says. They stay quiet for a moment. "Peeta, what are we going to do?"

* * *

Primrose Everdeen's name is called at the reaping of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games. She doesn't go. A girl Katniss never really knew volunteers in her place. Glimmer. She's been training for years. For the boys, Marvel volunteers. He's so excited, he mistakenly does it before the reaped name is called, and the escort lets it slide.

After the reaping, Katniss watches Prim walk back toward home with the group of giggly girls that follow her. (_She'll be fine_, she tells herself. _She's got Buttercup._) Then she takes Peeta's hand. They walk toward the fence, which is really only there for show, and she looks up at him. He looks down at her, confused.

"Peeta, if I asked you to run away from the district with me, would you?" she asks.

He steps toward her and takes her face in his hands, kissing her for the last time within district boundaries. It's her answer. They know they'll be caught if they even make it in the woods for more than a day. The capitol will find them, cut out their tongues or worse, but if they stay that's the end. When they're eighteen they'll be separated, forced into marriages based on rankings to produce the best possible offspring. She can't survive without him, so she'd rather die with him.

Peeta sneaks under first. The fence isn't on because no one from their district has ever even tried to escape. Katniss slides under and takes his hand. "Stay with me?" she asks. _Until they catch us. Until we eat something we shouldn't. Until we die._

He nods. "Always."

And they go.

* * *

_The title comes from the song _God Help The Outcasts_ sung by Heidi Mollenhauer for the Disney film _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_. _

_Thanks for reading! I hope you all enjoyed it. Part II should be up soon. Let me know what you think!_


	2. Part II: District Two

_Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for all the reviews and comments, I love hearing from you guys. I'll be trying to post a new chapter every Friday. I currently have District Three mostly finished and District Four completely finished, so they won't have any delay. For those of you who followed Prompts in Panem, this chapter is my submission and only a few grammar fixes have been changed. _

_Enjoy!_

* * *

Part II

* * *

"Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it."

Michelangelo

* * *

_District Two_

* * *

It's a vote that decides.

There is a village surrounding every mine and each is to offer up a young child – one boy and one girl – once a year, to the academy. It's not really an academy in terms of buildings and infrastructure. Instead, it is more of an apprenticeship, with district elders that have raised victors.

It is on the day of the reaping that they vote. With a list of all new village children, they look at family genetics and the likelihood that the tiny infant will be great. These children will be raised for their first twelve years to be brutal killers and then are put to a test. If they pass, they move on to be the strongest male and strongest female, and they will train until their eighteenth year, when they will be expected to volunteer. If they don't, they die.

And so, the small villages vote.

Their village is known for victors. Enobaria came from their village, as did Brutus. The upcoming tributes all look strong. Even Cato, at only two, is looking to be fierce, or so they're told. Once the children are chosen, they no longer return. The parents hear every so often how their child is faring, but most just simply forget. Or they try to. It's hard to forget sometimes.

Their village chooses a girl barely a few months old. The elder in charge rips little Katniss Everdeen out of her mother's arms. (Because, it's never easy for the parents to hand over newborn babes. It's easier when they're older.) And, because of the fuss more than anything else, the ensuing tied vote results in their choosing the older boy over the younger. So this how the elder comes to grab Peeta Mellark. They will be potential volunteers for the Seventy-Sixth Hunger Games.

And, because they choose them this way, it's less emotional on the actual reaping. Or, at least, this is what they believe.

* * *

Katniss Everdeen chucks a knife near his head and he glares. She is seven years old and her aim is terribly off. She's better with a sword, but their elder insists that she keep at the knives. So, she uses him as her target.

"It helps your reflexes," she insists.

Peeta Mellark glares at her again. "I would like to keep my ear for our reaping, you know."

She smirks. "You may not get there. Maybe you're not the strongest."

And he smirks back. "Oh, but I am," he insists. "I'm going to be the victor."

"Not if I kill you first."

* * *

She knows she has a sister in her village. She's heard through conversations she's not meant to hear and she finds it a great dishonor to her parents that Primrose was not chosen. And, in many ways, she finds herself doubting her own abilities. She was four when Primrose should have been voted for, plenty of time to decide whether her odds were good of making it to tribute rather than potential. So, Katniss tries her very hardest to impress.

She is going to win.

He knows he has two brothers. He's heard through conversations he's not meant to hear and he finds it odd that he was chosen but not them. He thinks they must have been sickly, or perhaps small, or maybe they tied and the other was older like he had been at his own choosing. But, it makes him doubt his own abilities and because of this he trains harder. Every year, he watches the brawls with interest, taking in strategies the victor always uses. He is ten when he watches Cato win his brawl with nothing but brute strength and no strategy. Peeta scoffs.

He is not going to win like that.

* * *

The brawls are always held in January, during the bitterest snow, to ensure that the potentials have to struggle. They want the strongest. The girls go first. Peeta watches Katniss strut into the small arena. The eighteen girls stand in a circle, looking at a small bundle of weapons. The buzzer sounds. They wait sixty seconds. They run.

Katniss is extremely fast and gets to the weapons first. She grabs her sword and begins her brutal slashing. One down. Two. Three, four, five. There is even a pair of girls that work together against her. But she doesn't back down. She's quick and agile and strong. And she wins.

Enobaria smiles with sharp jagged teeth. Peeta notices Brutus already evaluating his newest meat. The two will be mentors for their year. It's how the straws played out. They've had the most victors under their tutelage.

"She's good," he hears behind him and he turns to see the other older volunteers. Cato is smirking. "She could win."

And Peeta vows to do anything he can to beat her.

* * *

She sits beside Clove, the volunteer for the Seventy-Fourth, because they have no tributes for Seventy-Five. That is a Quarter Quell, and the restrictions have yet to be said. But Two doesn't hold stock in Quells. They're meant for the outlying districts, anyway. That's how that drunken buffoon from Twelve won – because Two didn't train their tributes. They never do for Quells. Give the other districts hope.

They watch the boys brawl and she keeps an eye on Peeta. He's from her village and, although she knows she'll have to kill him eventually, she'd like him to win the brawl. If anything, he'll be a decent district partner, especially when they have to pair with the losers from One and any decent tributes from Three and Four. He's witty. She likes that. He could take her far by keeping her on her toes.

"He's good," Clove says, pointing to Peeta as he wrestles a boy from another village to the ground. He's strong, but he's smart. Katniss knows this trick. He's done it to her before. Just as the boy under him expects him to reach for a weapon, Peeta snaps his neck quicker than quick. And the brawl is over.

"Better watch yourself, Katniss," Clove says. "He could win."

* * *

Train. Eat. Sleep. They do not get dessert. Dessert is for victors and if they want it they have to win.

So the tributes indulge in other forms of dessert.

Cato takes him under his wing, mostly because Peeta strokes his ego. He asks him about certain moves and different tactics and the brutal older boy is more than willing to boast. He's arrogant and Peeta knows this. So he learns even more than he's being taught. In more ways than one.

He's fifteen when Cato tells him to seduce Katniss. It's what he's done with Clove and that's how you break them. "It'll make it easier when it's just the two of you left," Cato says. "If you've made her happy before, she'll trust you more and it'll be easier to mislead her."

Peeta thinks about it for weeks. He turns sixteen and watches Katniss become better and better. Brutus and Enobaria seem to think the sun rises and sets because of her. And he wants to win. He's been programed to win. And he will do anything to do so.

* * *

"Seduce him."

Katniss nods, listening to the last of the advice of her last peer mentor. Clove will volunteer tomorrow and then Katniss will be the eldest. She will be expected to be the most regarded peer. This is her last chance to actually _receive_ advice.

"Who?"

Clove looks at her as if she's just asked for the color of the sky.

"Peeta. Seduce him. Guys are stupid," Clove says. "I've got Cato wrapped around my little finger. It might be the only weapon to use against him if we get to the finale and I don't have my knives. Think about it. If you don't have a sword and it's you two at the end. Who would win hand-to-hand?"

_Peeta_, she thinks. And that's why she has to do it.

* * *

"Primrose Everdeen!"

Katniss watches with mild interest as her younger sister is called. Although she has no need to be scared, the little blonde girl is terrified. She rolls her eyes as Prim steps on stage and the escort calls for any volunteers. Everyone looks back.

Clove doesn't look terrified. As she passes Katniss, she looks thrilled.

* * *

"Peeta Mellark!"

It's practice. He walks up and stands there bored, waiting for the volunteer call and for Cato to rush forward. He looks at the big burly boy and shakes his head. Cato won't win. Peeta's been studying strategy too long for him to believe that. Once he's relieved from Games participation – at least for two years – he steps off the stage and looks up at the two tributes. Clove is small and scrappy. Cato is sturdy and conceited. Both are bloodthirsty.

But he'd be surprised if either of them wins it.

* * *

And he's right.

* * *

Katniss watches the crowning in disgust. The girl from Twelve is crowned victor and she doesn't _deserve_ it. The girl was small and pathetic and her only redeeming quality had been when she killed that idiot from One after he killed the little girl from Eleven. She's weak and barely made it alive to the second day. If that little girl – Rue, she thought her name was, or maybe something else – hadn't of found her stumbling through the woods and tried to steal something out of her backpack while the idiot was resting by the river, the beautiful blonde would have died that night.

And the_ boy_. He was brooding and hulking – and, if she allowed it, he was slightly good looking. He snared the girl from One – the one that made Clove look like a jealous idiot while she hung off Cato – with some tree contraption and he took out a fair number of people himself. She respected him for that, but not for what he did at the end. _Sacrificing himself like a coward._ All those stories about wanting to go home to a little sister who picked flowers and two brothers he needed to teach and a mother that did washing, and the boy can't bear to kill his district partner, a girl who would be an easy kill. She doesn't get it.

* * *

Those idiots from Twelve knew exactly what they were doing. Their strategy was flawless. From the moment the blonde haired girl told Caesar Flickerman she'd housed a crush on her district partner for years, they played it perfectly. Creative. Intuitive. Never used before. And the boy sent the girl home and, although it's not what Peeta would've done, it worked. One of them won.

A love story. Maybe Cato wasn't so off the mark after all.

* * *

She's a terrible seductress, but after a while, he flirts back so maybe she's not so terrible at it after all. As the winter months come in, their witty banter turns into a game. She sneaks up on him and attacks him from behind, kissing the area behind his ear he finds _so_ stimulating. He's loud on his feet and so she usually hears him, so he doesn't sneak, he surprises. In the middle of nowhere he'll kiss her. He'll just take her lips in his in the middle of practice, or an argument, or while they're getting ready for bed in the Tribute's Home.

The night of the Victory Tour, when stupid Madge Undersee steps on stage, Katniss finds her way to his bed. Because she's upset. Not so much that Clove is dead, but that neither of the tributes from Twelve were better competitors (and if either of them should have beaten Cato and Clove it should have been the boy). Clove was her peer mentor, the one she was closest to, and if anyone should have beaten her it should have been someone better than her.

And_ they_ weren't. Especially not the one who actually won.

* * *

He knows he's in trouble when he hears her sing. She's never sang before, at least not in front of him, because singing isn't something tributes do. Victors sing as a talent. Tributes don't. But, ever since the Victory Tour, she's been distracted and upset. So, when she's showering for nearly an hour and is bordering on being late for their curfew, he wanders to the girls' bathroom to make sure she didn't fall down the drain.

But, she's singing.

And now he knows instantly what all the stupid feelings he's been having meant. That his nightmares aren't because of anticipation toward the announcement of the Quell or his own reaping. That his need to protect her during sparing isn't so much because of a bond they've formed. That when Brutus tells him not to smile so much, it's because she's around and not because he's mastered a new skill. It means he's a goner.

And he's sunk.

* * *

The Quarter Quell reaps the tributes from a pool of existing victors.

* * *

Brutus dies first. The drunk from Twelve does it with a knife after Brutus takes out the little wasp of a thing that is the latest victor. In retribution, Enobaria rips Twelve's only remaining victor to shreds. But she doesn't get crowned either.

Finnick Odair and his trident get the most sponsors and he wins again.

(But he doesn't. Not really.)

Katniss wiggles her way into Peeta's arms the night Enobaria dies. "Who's going to mentor us?" she asks.

Peeta shrugs and squeezes her tightly in his arms trying to ignore his heart's rapid beats.

* * *

They explore. On hot sticky nights they'll sneak to the roof for a cool breeze but it will still be too warm. Their skin slickens with sweat from the air and their actions as they live wildly without abandon. In less than a year one of them will be dead. Katniss knows it has to be Peeta. Peeta doesn't know what he wants anymore.

_Twelve might have had the right idea_, he thinks. He's mesmerized by the way the moonlight bounces off Katniss's skin. He traces the freckles on her arms as she sleeps, resting his hand haphazardly on her bare stomach. He's not sure living without her is worth winning.

* * *

Katniss is not scared when she volunteers. She walks right up to the podium with her head held high. She sees her sister in the crowd – or, at least, who she thinks is her sister. Primrose stares at her in wide-eyed amazement, as if she's learning that the princesses in the stories her parents would tell her at night are real.

She is scared when Peeta volunteers. And she hates that.

* * *

They train. They join the idiots from One and the boy from Four. (The girl is a lost cause, so Katniss icily tells her that her services are unneeded, and the kids from Three decline to join.) They do their interviews just the way they've practiced. Katniss will be sharp and pointed. _She is going to win, Caesar. _ Peeta will be brute and brave, flashing smiles to the crowd. _I'm here to win, Caesar._

But that night, when Katniss curls into him under the covers, he can feel her shaking. He can feel his own heart cracking.

"What are we tomorrow?" Katniss asks.

They had fallen to the wind long ago. Although she still denies it, she can't _really_ pretend anymore. She likes this boy. Might even love him. Do they show that on camera, after that terrible romance the two from Twelve tried to do in Seventy-Four?

"District partners," Peeta says, kissing her temple. "It'll be easier that way."

"Easier for what?" Katniss asks.

Peeta smirks, but the smile doesn't quite reach his eyes. "For when I win." He lets out a breath. "Haven't you heard? I'm going to be a victor."

Katniss scoffs, cuddling into his chest, nuzzling his bare skin. "Not if I kill you first."

* * *

There are no sacrifices in the Seventy-Sixth Hunger Games. The sixty seconds end and both Katniss and Peeta – with odds heavily in their favor – fly toward the Cornucopia. In a span of an hour, each kills four tributes. But, Katniss makes the fatal move of killing the twelve-year-old sister of Seven's male tribute, a long agonizing death after six days in the arena. She tells the girl it's for Enobaria, who was axed by Johanna Mason. An eye for an eye.

The girl squeals and screams. Peeta stands guard, until he realizes there's trouble brewing a few yards away. The brutal hulk from Ten is closing in on the pair from One. With a glance over his shoulder, satisfied that there's no one else around, he leaves Katniss to her torture and goes to help his alliance take out their biggest opponent besides themselves.

When Katniss finishes, she comes to help. But not before the boy from Seven sees her unmistakable braid flying through the woods.

At the feast, the boy from Seven plays her. Like the Career she is, she's cocky and confident, but crazed from battle. She begs Peeta for the matching set. He obliges. She prances off after the boy from Seven, who's fiddling with a bag with his district number on it, and just as she's about to take him down, he spins around, tackling her to the ground.

Peeta sees the rock too late.

"Katniss!" he screams, ignore the looks from the pair from One.

"Peeta!"

He runs through the field, but he's too slow. The boy from Seven bashes her skull before he can get there. He rips the boy off and slams him hard, cracking his neck as he did in his brawl six years ago. Quicker than quick.

But she's already gone. And his mind goes with her. They are both lost to the arena.

* * *

_Thanks so much for reading! See you next Friday!_


	3. Part III: District Three

Part III

* * *

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."

Albert Einstein

* * *

_District Three_

* * *

Despite the fact that they create some of the most expensive items in Panem, the citizens of District Three live in abject poverty. Their tiny little homes can barely fit a husband and wife, let alone any children they so happen to have, and the roofs leak with rain and sway with the winds. Their children wear clothes until they fray and rip and unravel, and when they are chosen for the Hunger Games they are often included in the Career pack even though tributes rarely volunteer.

And, in spite of everything, District Three is a district of hope.

The district elders look into the faces of the children and see a future. So they work tirelessly to create the televisions that air the deaths of hundreds of children. They make sound systems for folks that don't understand the term _need_. And they do it with a smile, because if they do, the Capitol will never suspect.

They're planning an uprising.

* * *

His father works well with his hands. He's a logical man who can fix any tiny mishap with any of the Capitol's high-tech gadgets, and Peeta enjoys watching him work. His brothers, both older, don't care. They hate the Capitol just as everyone else in Three hates the Capitol and because of that they want nothing to do with fixing their _toys_. But, Peeta likes to watch his father work, enjoys seeing the items his district makes, and one day hopes to learn the trade.

It's when he's eleven that he stumbles upon a meeting.

He's heading into the room at his father's workshop to watch him in whatever repair he's doing when he notices many of the district men sitting around. His father's hands fly across the keyboard of a computer and Peeta knows instantly what they're doing.

They're hacking.

It goes silent for a moment and then the workshop bursts into cheers. He recognizes a few people, including Mr. Everdeen and a few former victors. Beetee, in particular, has gotten to know his father well in the past few years. The man is there now, sporting a smile on his face as he shakes his father's hand.

Peeta makes himself hidden when the men make their leave. He knows that his district is rebellious. He knows that under their happy-go-lucky personas there are many disgruntled people in Three. Kids, in particular, shout out the opinions of their parents before they realize they can get into trouble with Peacekeepers.

But he also knows that it's dangerous to be involved in the rebellion.

* * *

He learned what happened when you tried to rebel when he was five years old. They were sitting in music assembly, listening to their teacher half-heartedly sing Panem's national anthem, insisting the class follow her lead. Peeta, even at five, hated singing. His brothers often laughed at him, telling him he sounded like a dying animal when he tried, so his mouth remained clamped shut.

Katniss Everdeen's mouth was clamped shut too.

He knew Katniss Everdeen. His father had pointed her out on the first day of school, claiming that he knew her mother long ago. Peeta quite enjoyed listening to Katniss sing. Her voice was extraordinarily beautiful, even more so than any synthesized music the Capitol created and his father often played to ensure he'd done his job to make the sound systems work again. He'd told her that once and she'd smiled and taken his hand and they'd been friends ever since.

So, at recess, when she asked him why he never sang, he answered honestly.

"I'll teach you a song," Katniss suggested. "I think everybody can sing."

The song she taught him was banned and, unfortunately, the two continued to sing it all the way home. Only they never arrived all the way home. One of the Peacekeepers stopped the two five year olds and threw them in what the district had dubbed The Pen. Katniss had cried all night as they were made a public spectacle.

"Don't cry, Katniss," he had said after Mr. Everdeen had to be forcibly dragged away after the Peacekeepers threated to whip him for public assault on an authority. "I'll protect you."

She wiped her eyes and kissed his cheek and he held her tightly in his arms, rocking her back and forth through the night.

This is why Peeta doesn't tell Katniss that he's going to start hacking.

Katniss has a stubborn set of survivalist views. She goes to school so she can learn and ultimately be placed at a job site. Even at ten, she doesn't want to have children – why would she when they could be reaped? – and has even, on one occasion, told Peeta that she doesn't want to marry.

(Although, Peeta thinks this is nonsense because he's already told her millions of times that she can't be given a house unless she's legally bound to a working man. He's already offered up his services to play her husband as well, to which she always laughs and pats his cheek and says, "but you're my Peeta, not my husband.")

And she sure as hell doesn't want to be involved in any type of rebellious activities. After their night in The Pen, Katniss just wants to survive.

Peeta weighs his options still. Having Katniss on his side would be a good tool. She's highly analytical and she can see things objectively. She's ranked high in their class and her fingers look so graceful as they glide over keyboards and tinker with toys. He's not so analytical. He's creative, sure, and he can think his way through an argument, but words won't help him with this.

But, in the long run, he knows its best not to involve Katniss. He doesn't want her to get hurt if he gets caught and she wouldn't help him anyway. He's just protecting her. It's what he's always done.

* * *

It takes him eight months and six days of breaking into the school at night, but he finally cracks the system and changes a few grades here or there, just to test the waters. He's eleven and it's summer and he's so proud of himself. He's going to help the cause. One day he'll be of use to whatever it is District Three is planning.

Another Hunger Games goes by. Their tributes don't win.

When he's twelve, their tributes don't win either. But, he doesn't understand why the victors come back so thrilled. Beetee, a man who Peeta has rarely ever seen smile, is beaming from ear to ear. The girl who won didn't even give a final interview and Peeta has heard rumors that Annie Cresta has gone insane.

"It's starting," he hears when he spies. "You want to know why Annie won? Because Finnick pulled strings. We have our connections. We just need a trigger."

He wants to know what they're planning. He wants to help. He doesn't want to see any more innocent kids die, but more importantly he doesn't want to lose the people he cares about most. He's worried about Katniss and Prim and his brothers and his friends. Himself.

He hopes the trigger comes soon.

* * *

It doesn't.

* * *

When he's fourteen, he contemplates telling his father about his abilities, but he doesn't. By this point, he can easily get into the Capitol systems, although he never fools around. He doesn't want to get caught. It's more the fact that he knows he can do it, knows that he can be of some help if it ever came to it.

They begin to think that trigger is never going to come. The next three winners are from One and Two. The winner of the Seventy-Third is a boy from Ten. The Seventy-Fourth is a mess. There's an awful love story between the two from Twelve. Peeta hates watching it, because the girl is so in love with the boy and it's so obvious the boy hasn't really thought much about her. He sits in a tree with a bow and arrow and picks people off one by one as they walk by, not even once trying to go out to find his partner.

And the pretty blonde girl ends up dying a horrible and brutal death at the hand of the boy from Two. The victor, Gale Hawthorne, looks guilty when he sees her face in the sky, but later in his final interview, he tells Caesar that he never really knew her. He didn't love her like she did him. He had his family to protect. That's his first priority. The more he talks about it, the more his words catch to the point where he doesn't answer any more questions and Haymitch Abernathy has to drag him off stage.

Peeta makes a sideways glance toward Katniss, who is holding Prim tightly against her, and wonders what he'd do if he was in that position.

That night, when they're sitting on his bed before curfew hits and she has to go home, he wraps his arms around her. "I want to spend every minute of the rest of my life with you."

She looks up at him and nods her head. "Okay."

"You'll allow it?"

"I'll allow it."

She's his first kiss.

(But, she still doesn't want to marry him. He winks and tells her the following day at school that he'll get her eventually. She insists that she doesn't need to get married. There's no point, not when she can just kiss her best friend. His heart breaks a little inside, but he masks it with an air of confidence. He'll convince her that he's right and has been all along. She rolls her eyes. "In your dreams, Mellark.")

* * *

The trigger comes when they're least expecting it.

* * *

The reaping of the Seventy-Fifth Hunger Games reaps existing victors. It is a brutal bloody mess. One by one, the districts are forced to send their broken souls back into an arena. A brother and sister are reaped from One. The two more ferocious victors are reaped from Two. Their district says goodbye to Beetee and Wiress. Four loses the beautiful and wonderful Finnick Odair and when Annie Cresta is reaped as well (only to be replaced by an older woman), the people in Three begin to murmur.

_This can't be right. It's all the big names. The ones that have remained in the public eye._

His father even whispers, although it's so quiet Peeta can barely hear, that he thinks the draw was rigged.

Johanna Mason stands alone in her pen in Seven with a scowl on her face and walks up before they even call her name. A mother of three is pulled from Eight. But, the most interesting happens in Twelve. They only have two victors and both are male. It would be unfair to have two men in the arena. So, the rule is decided that the one that is reaped must pick his partner, drawing from the idea of the first Quarter Quell.

And, as if anyone thought otherwise, it's Gale Hawthorne, the one the Capitol citizens hate for breaking the heart of his district partner.

And, when he refuses to choose, he earns a bullet right between his eyes.

It is then that Peeta realizes his father has gone missing. He spins around and looks through the crowds only to find his father nowhere in sight. He ducks out of his spot and runs to his father's office, looking in the doorway to see his father and Mr. Everdeen standing at a computer, their fingers flying as they hack.

Peeta's eyes widen. No wonder the Capitol showed the shooting. It's not really them. His mind spins, wondering if this was planned. If the Twelve victor was made a martyr for a cause, if this was planned from the very start. How, though? How had they done this?

There is a loud crashing noise and Peeta ducks behind a door. Peacekeepers come storming in and he can hear screams from outside. The Peacekeepers open the door to the office and he hears two gun shots and then two more and he closes his eyes and fights the urge to vomit all over the floor.

Katniss. He has to get to Katniss.

He sprints out before the Peacekeepers find him and rush through the streets. District Three is acting as if it were Beetee or Wiress killed on the projector screens. They're demolishing everything they can get their hands on, starting fires, and attacking Peacekeepers left and right. He keeps sprinting.

"Katniss!"

He hears a scream, but there are so many he doesn't know if it's hers or not.

The projector screens have gone black. A hovercraft is circling the district, preparing for a landing. He keeps running. Where is she? Where did she go?

There are children on the ground. There are adults on the ground. His teachers. His friends. His family. His brothers. So many dead, so much fighting. He didn't even do anything, didn't even start this, but he feels like he pulled the trigger just because he's been practicing his hacking.

"Peeta!"

He spins and nearly collapses in relief when he sees her, tucked under a piece of fallen roof tarp. He rushes to her side, wraps his arms around her, and kisses his temple.

"Where's Prim?"

Katniss makes a terrible mewling sound, her eyes clenched shut, and Peeta swallows back the vomit that rose when he heard the shots in the office. His father. Mr. Everdeen. Prim. Katniss is drenched in blood, with a wound on her forehead and her clothes slightly charred, no doubt from the fires being started. He looks out and sees that the place where he was just standing is now the place where a Peacekeeper is hitting a boy a year older than himself with the butt of his gun.

And then the bombs hit. He holds her close and listens as they drop bombs further from the square, on the homes and businesses.

When Peeta opens his eyes, he realizes that he blacked out. The bombing raid is over and the square is destroyed. He squeezes his arms tighter around Katniss and kisses the top of her head, but she doesn't move. She doesn't stir. She doesn't do anything.

He pulls her away from him so he can get a better look. Her dress is splattered with blood he had been sure was Prim's, but now he sees it. Gun shot to the spleen. He can't even make a noise and he shakes her, but nothing happens.

"Wake up," he says, hissing through his teeth. "Katniss, wake up. Please."

He hears footsteps, no doubt district men looking for survivors.

"Katniss, this isn't funny," he says. "Wake up."

All he tastes is salt. His cheeks feel like he's been standing in a rainstorm. He left her alone, separated from her in the square. If he had been there he could have died for her. If he had brought her with him, he could have saved her. He brings his middle three fingers to her lips, covering them. His tears fall on her face like rain as he cradles her in his arms under the tarp of the old roof, both of them safe from the bombs by a house they'd never own.

He chokes out a sob and lets his head fall on hers, which is still sticky with blood. His entire body shakes as his tears wash the blood from her face, pooling in a red river down her neck and onto the gravel ground. He can barely hear someone shouting for survivors.

"Is there anyone alive?"

He's not really alive, he thinks. His entire family is gone. His father was shot in front of him. His brothers were lain out in the street. Primrose and Kat –

"Is there anyone alive out here?"

He turns his head just in time not to vomit on Katniss. He pulls her back to him and rocks her back and forth. Maybe if he tries hard enough, she'll come back. She'll wake up and they'll help rebuild the district.

"You know what we're gonna do, Katniss?" he asks, his eyes still flooding and his throat all clogged with a mixture of regret, sorrow, and misery. "I'm going to convince you to marry me. I am. And, we're gonna...go to the Justice Building...and you're gonna wear a white dress...even though you're gonna fight it the whole time."

He chuckles imagining it. He can see her, her scowl, her arms crossed around her as Prim giggles and fixes her flowers.

"And, we're going to get a house...with a roof like this one," he continues, his eyes shut, tears leaking out despite his attempts to keep them in. His voice is nothing but breath. "And we're gonna have babies, Katniss. Beautiful ones that look just like you."

He clutches her to his chest and rocks. He hears a clang but doesn't look up until he sees someone put their hand on the arm that is protecting Katniss from the world. He looks up into Beetee's eyes.

"Oh, my dear boy," Beetee says.

He doesn't fathom how Beetee is here. The train must have left for the Capitol before the uprising. Unless he somehow arrived back here. He doesn't have time to think of details.

"She's not dead."

Beetee blinks and sighs, moving Katniss's braid over her shoulder, back where it belongs.

* * *

He meets a lot of people in District Thirteen. Haymitch Abernathy is a surly drunk who doesn't really like anyone or anything. President Coin loves to watch over his shoulder as he works, hacking codes into the Capitol systems mindlessly. He follows Beetee around and therefore gets to know the victors. Finnick Odair walks around in his underwear sometimes and Johanna Mason likes to tease him, call him handsome or curly top. Annie is just as crazy as he feels, but he doesn't have someone like Finnick to pull him out of his misery.

He wallows. He should have stayed with her. Why did he leave her? He had never spent a day without her, a moment without her except when they went to bed at night (and even then sometimes Katniss snuck in his window).

Apparently, this was planned. Hawthorne went as nuts as Annie and he knew ahead of time that his refusal would mean being shot. The Peacekeeper that did it – Beetee didn't give any names but Peeta heard Haymitch muttering after he found a bottle of the President's whiskey about a man named Darius – shot him because it was part of a plan. And Darius was the one to do it so it would be the most humane – quick, painless, and point-blank. At the time this was happening, the command center, which was stationed at his father's office, got to work halting trains and recording footage of the shooting to show across the country. A staged trigger to get everyone on board with what President Coin's plan was.

All he thinks is that this staged attack killed Katniss.

One night, in his nondescript box of a room in Thirteen, Peeta remembers a few of the lyrics to the tune he's been humming since Katniss died. Not many, just some.

_Are you, are you?_

_Coming to the tree_

_Where the dead man called out for his love to flee_

_Strange things did happen here_

_No stranger would it be_

_If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree_

He hums it all day. He hums it as he does his work. He hums it as he eats. He hums it as he dresses in the clothes that he arrived to Thirteen in, splattered with Katniss's blood and ripped from the chaos. He hums it as he closes his eyes and remembers sitting in The Pen with Katniss. He hums it as he remembers holding her in his arms as she slept in his bed, or slept in his arms on a blanket on the roof looking up at the stars.

"Do you remember?" she says, her arms circling around his neck in a tight embrace that's uncomfortable but nice.

"What?" he says, his eyes still closed. But he can see her, smiling at him on the roof.

"You told me that you wanted to spend every moment of the rest of your life with me," she says. "You can't break your promise."

_Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me. _

He hums it as opens his eyes, Katniss disappearing, and he steps off the chair in the closet.

* * *

_Thanks for reading. I just wanted to let you all know that one of the authors that I really like, monroeslittle, wrote a story about Katniss and Peeta living in other districts called _My Kingdom Come_. It's beautiful and I personally think it's better than mine. I just wanted to let you know so you could check it out and that any similarities you see between this and that story are not intentional. _

_This chapter wasn't my favorite. I really wanted to parallel the war and Mockingjay with District Three, since they are one of the most rebellious districts through the series, and I hope I did that. Also, I'm sure a lot of you are probably going to hate me for taking the 'protecting' theme of Katniss and Peeta's relationship and have it crumble right in front of his eyes. I'm sorry, but it had to happen. I wanted Peeta to parallel his crazed Mockingjay character, but also the two characters from Three that we meet in the series – Beetee and Wiress, especially Wiress. _

_But I'll let you know in advance that Four was my absolute favorite to write and, actually, the first one I wrote after submitting to PiP, so I'm really excited to see what you all think!_

_Thank you so much for reading._


	4. Part IV: District Four

Part IV

* * *

"The Sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."

Jacques Cousteau

* * *

_District Four_

* * *

Finnick Odair is her book buddy.

Even at seven, she realizes that she's lucky for some reason. Everyone in the district loves Finnick and she loves him too. He's very nice and he indulges her in stories about his father's fishing boat when they're supposed to be reading Capitol-sponsored books. He pulls her into a corner and pretends to read, but really ignites her fantasies about things she'll never see.

"Whales, Katniss," Finnick says one day toward the end of school. "Its eye is bigger than you!"

"No!" she exclaims.

Finnick rolls his eyes at her. "You don't believe me?" he asks. She shakes her head. "I'll take you sometime, when my father's not using the boat. Would you like that?"

Katniss nods her head so enthusiastically her braids flop on her shoulders. Finnick grins easily and opens the book when the teacher looks their way. However, he doesn't read. He leans in and whispers in her ear about monsters that rock the boats out at sea. Her eyes beam with excitement.

Her own father is a fisherman, but he never has the exciting stories that Finnick has for her. He just says that it's work. It puts food on their table. It will keep Katniss from taking tesserae when she's older. So, she gets her stories from Finnick instead.

"What do you use to slay a sea monster?" Katniss asks.

Finnick eyes the teacher before moving the book in front of his mouth. "A trident."

Katniss gasps. Tridents are expensive. Even the wealthiest fishermen don't have tridents. "How did you get one?"

"Passed down through the family," Finnick says. "From before the Dark Days. When I take you on the boat, I'll show it to you. I have to warn you, Katniss, I'm pretty good."

"Will you catch me a fish?" she giggles.

He tugs on her braid. "I'll catch you a whale," he teases.

They never get much reading done.

* * *

Katniss sits on her father's shoulders at the reaping of the Sixty-Fifth Annual Hunger Games. Her mother holds onto Prim, who's sucking some sea salt off her thumb to keep her occupied. She looks around and is just barely able to make out her bronze-haired book buddy in the group of fourteen-year-old boys. She tries to catch his attention, waves even, but he's not looking in her direction.

Their escort comes out and taps the microphone, silencing everyone, and pulls out the first name. It's a twelve-year-old girl who gets volunteered for almost immediately by an eighteen-year-old Katniss recognizes as one of the girls who practice fighting on the front lawn of the school with the wresting coach. It's a club, really, for kids who want to be in the Hunger Games one day, usually kids whose parents are poorer and they train so they can have the opportunity to win riches for their families. Usually, the tributes belong to this group.

"Finnick Odair!"

Katniss's heart breaks as she watches her book buddy step on stage. She looks around at the groups of boys, knowing that someone will volunteer. Her lower lip quivers when no one steps forward. A few people in the crowd begin to murmur.

_What a shame! _

_The poor Odairs! He's their only child. _

_Finnick was always such a wonderful boy._

And then he's brought into the Justice Building and the door is slammed shut.

"What's wrong, little duck?" her father asks when he sets her down on the ground off his shoulders. She doesn't say anything and her mother leans forward to whisper in her father's ear. He closes his eyes, lets out a long sigh, and kneels in front of her. "Do you want to go say goodbye?"

Katniss nods her head. It's the only thing she can really do.

There's a long line to see Finnick. His parents, obviously, go first, and then a group of boys his age that she recognizes as the other book buddies. Finnick's classmates are usually so rambunctious and now they're mild and subdued. There's a group of girls in front of her too, but she only really recognizes Annie Cresta. She's Peeta Mellark's book buddy and if Finnick wasn't her book buddy, she'd think Annie would be her second pick. She's kind to everyone and pats Katniss's head has she walks down the aisle to Peeta, asking her about her day in a soft voice that reminds Katniss of an angel.

And, finally, the Peacekeeper lets her in.

"Finnick!" she squeals, running forward. He opens his arms and catches her, sitting down and pulling her with him. "You have to win!"

He chuckles but Katniss doesn't like the sound. His voice is usually calm and soothing, but now he sounds like the waters during a storm, thick and turbulent. She tears off her bracelet, which her mother made from sea glass, and hands it to him.

"Is this my token?" he asks. She nods and he kisses the top of her head. "Thank you, Katniss. That's sweet of you."

"Will you come back?" she asks.

"I'll try." And then he looks at her and sighs. "But, I want you to know something, okay? You're like the little sister I never had. I'm glad I got you as my book buddy."

She swallows her tears. She's got to be strong and then he'll come home.

* * *

Her parents tell her it's unhealthy, how much time she spends in front of the television, but she needs to make sure Finnick is safe. So, when they cut her off, she heads into the main square and watches on the big screens. Finnick joined up with the Career pack, but now that his partner is dead, he must be trying to rethink his strategy.

"Are you okay?"

She looks around. She's the only one outside on her blanket watching, the majority of the district viewing the Games on their televisions. She turns back around and Annie sits beside her, patting the blanket so Peeta can sit too. Annie pulls Katniss into her arms as they watch Finnick sit as lookout while the other Careers sleep, his eyes searching the arena.

"He's going to be okay," Annie says.

Beside her, Peeta nods but doesn't say anything. He's never said anything to Katniss before, so she wonders why he's here. Maybe he is just as close to Annie as she is to Finnick. She doesn't know.

They sit watching Finnick for an hour and then Annie stands. She has to go home. Peeta, however, tells her he'll walk Katniss home once Finnick switches shifts. Annie raises an eyebrow but says nothing more, turning and walking home along the water's edge. Peeta scoots closer to her on the blanket.

"I'm sorry about your book buddy," Peeta says, resting his hand close to hers on the blanket.

"He's not just my book buddy," Katniss says. "He's my big brother."

Peeta tilts his head to the side but says nothing more, looking up at the screen. Katniss is about to ask what he's still doing beside her – she could walk home herself, thank you very much – when she hears the sound of a parachute echoing through the speakers and Peeta's eyes widen.

She spins and when she sees the gift, she leaps in the air and starts jumping.

"He's got a trident!" she exclaims. "He can use it like he uses it against the sea monsters!"

"But," Peeta says softly. "They're not sea monsters. They're humans."

Katniss turns to him and glares. "It's not any different."

Peeta shuts his mouth and the two of them watch Finnick work on a net. He hangs it nearby and waits. No more than an hour later, he's snared half the remaining Careers, trapping them in his net and spearing each with his trident. With blood on his hands, he walks into the woods, heading for the remaining tributes.

"Poor Finnick," Peeta says later, when Finnick's shoulders slump as he looks at the body of the girl from District Twelve, caught in his snare with a gash from his trident in her chest.

Katniss doesn't see that. She sees that there are only a few more people to go before her book buddy comes home. "Poor Finnick?" she asks. When Peeta nods, she shakes her head. "But he's winning."

* * *

It takes two days and six hours from the time that Finnick received his trident for him to be crowned victor. Katniss has never been so happy for anything in her life. Her father sits her down after Finnick's interview and tries to warn her.

"He might be very sad, Katniss," he says.

But Katniss doesn't understand. Finnick is her book buddy, her only friend, and her _big brother_. He always has a goofy smile and a story to tell. And it was scary to watch him kill, but he had to. If he didn't, he wouldn't come home.

Annie promises to take her to see him at the train station so they can stand closer to the front. The thirteen-year-old holds on tightly to Katniss in one hand, Peeta in the other, to make sure her two seven-year-old companions do not lose their way in the massive cheering crowd.

Finnick looks the same when he steps out, except he's dressed in fancy clothes and they've gelled his hair. He stands beside Mags with his shoulders a little slumped, listening to the mayor's congratulations. And that's when Katniss sees it.

He looks tired.

* * *

After all the balls and celebrations, Finnick locks himself away in his new house for the remainder of the summer. When school starts again, he doesn't go. Annie begs and pleads with the teacher, and Katniss is able to join her and Peeta rather than get a new book buddy. It makes her sad, but Annie lets her sit in her lap and Peeta holds her hand.

But it's not Finnick.

* * *

On his fifteenth birthday, Katniss makes a card and asks Annie if she could give it to him. In it, she writes: _Feel better, Finnick. You've got fish to catch!_

Two days later, rumor has it that Finnick has been called to the Capitol.

* * *

When he returns, people in District Four shy away from him. Katniss doesn't quite understand. When she sees him coming down from the Victor's Village, looking like he's headed for a swim, she jogs after him as quietly as she can, despite her parents' pleas for her to stay away from him. She doesn't understand. He's still the same Finnick.

She follows him down to the edge of the sea and watches him sink under the waves, trying to scrub himself clean with bits of seaweed and even some barnacles that make him bleed. She starts to run down to him, his screams making her heart ache, when she feels a hand on her arm.

Peeta shakes his head. "Let him be, Katniss," he says.

* * *

She realizes that Peeta's been following her around since Finnick's reaping, but she doesn't say anything. She just watches him back. He stays just far enough away as to not be noticed, but just within reach to step in if she has a problem – like when she wanted to rush down to Finnick, or when she fell off the playground and scraped her knees. But, other than to help or watch her, he makes no move of friendship.

So she doesn't either.

* * *

There's a terrible storm when she's twelve.

Capitol guards come to Four and drag the nineteen-year-old Finnick Odair out of his house. Even with his muscular stature, he's no match for them, but he sure does try. The entire district watches as he kicks away Peacekeepers and snarls as the 'big guns' carry him away toward a hovercraft.

Annie makes a scene. Katniss knows she's been attempting to help Finnick, but that he's mainly just pushed her away. She screams for the hulking men to leave him alone. But they don't listen to her and Finnick is taken away.

During his stay at the Capitol, the storm rolls in and a boat is lost at sea. Her father, Mr. Odair, and many of the other men of the district sink into the depths of the ocean. The President sends a message to their screens about how sorry he is for their losses.

That year, Annie is reaped. Since she's eighteen, no one volunteers.

* * *

Katniss watches Peeta from afar as he descends into misery listening to Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith comment on Annie's skills and her odds of winning. With the brutal hulk from her own district, they say, she has a decent shot of making it far just by partnering alone.

But then her partner is beheaded right in front of her during the bloodbath and Annie hides in a cave to lose her mind.

Katniss desperately wants to return the favor to Peeta, but she has bigger things on her plate. She's taken out tesserae to feed Prim since her mother's been rendered useless since her father's death. Rumors are going around that Mrs. Odair has lost her mind, just like her own mother, and that weighs heavily on Katniss as well. Finnick has lost so much already and, although she hasn't been able to talk to him in years, she still feels like she owes him something. He came back, after all, just like she asked.

So, she watches Peeta sit on the blanket just like she did, watching Annie suffer. The dam breaks and she outswims the other tributes to victory. But, Peeta doesn't look happy when she wins and Katniss has a feeling that she knows why but she doesn't want to think that way.

Being alive is always better than being dead.

(Or so she thinks, until Prim looks like a skeleton.)

* * *

Her father taught her how to fish despite her mother's distain. Fishing is men's work and something Katniss shouldn't do. But, she's named after a water plant and her father thought it might be handy for her to know.

But she doesn't think of that. Instead she wanders the district looking in trashcans and snatching fish out of the buckets on the docks. But, it's never really enough.

She notices Peeta staring at her, but she keeps her head down. He's probably wondering why she didn't try to help him with Annie like he had with Finnick. Maybe he's angry with her. Maybe he hates her. She really doesn't care. All that matters is that Prim hasn't complained of being hungry despite not having any food. She doesn't have to be a healer to know that it's not a good sign.

Her stomach growls loudly during class and the children all giggle. Some of the boys tease her, ask her if she's joined the volunteer's club yet – they hear it comes with a meal every day, compensation for the fact that they'll die when they actually go to the Games. Not many people go hungry in District Four.

She is now one of the few.

Peeta comes and sits beside her at lunch the day one of the boys tauntingly holds a lunchbox in her face. She eyes him warily as he opens his lunchbox and ignores the cruel jokes and names sent his way by his former friends because he's sitting with _her_. He splits his tuna sandwich, gives her his whole bottle of fresh spring water, and hands her his seaweed snack pack without a single word. And he watches as she eats it.

She feels guilty, but she's so hungry she shovels everything down at record speed. When she looks back sheepishly, she finds him grinning. He goes into his backpack and withdraws a small paper bag.

"For Prim," he says, before standing up and going away.

Katniss has never felt so embarrassed in all her life. She's never done one nice thing for Peeta Mellark and here he is, feeding her as if they're best friends.

That day after school she sits by the pond waiting for Prim. A water lily lands on her foot and she lifts it up, spying the minnows tickling her feet. That's when it hits her. It's illegal to do for their own personal consumption, but she knows how to fish. When she stands up, ready to race home as soon as Prim is let of out her classroom, she notices Peeta watching her.

She looks down at the ground.

* * *

Once Prim is well fed, the rumors begin to matter again. The district seems to love talking about Finnick and Annie, and how Finnick's been seen coming out of her house in the mornings. It's such scandal. Katniss rolls her eyes at it. As if they're doing anything scandalous – Annie can barely talk from what she's heard. She didn't even do a final interview with Caesar Flickerman after her Games.

She wonders, although she'd never admit it, what those in the district say about her.

She wakes up every morning with a goal. _Today is the day I'll thank Peeta._ It never happens. Most of the time she gets so close and then she turns away. Once she even tapped his shoulder in class, he turned around, and she smiled and asked for a pencil instead. And he didn't even look upset. He looked thrilled.

By the time she's sixteen, she's made so little progress, she wonders what exactly she's thanking him for. He's just _there_. Always. And she's never there for him.

The mentors for the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games are Finnick and Mags. It's technically supposed to be Annie, but Four's victors decided instead to throw all the women's names in a hat and pull one out instead. Of course, it would end up being Mags, who suffered a stroke at the beginning of the year and is barely in better shape than Annie. It'll end up being Finnick mentoring and Mags helping in any way she physically can.

And, of course, it's the year _her_ name is drawn.

Finnick looks like he's ready to jump right out of his seat and strangle their escort, who's called his name and Annie's name and now hers. His face looks sunburnt it's so red. But, the escort doesn't seem to notice and pulls the boy's name out of the ball. Katniss blows out a breath when it's not Peeta.

He does come to see her though.

After Prim is dragged away by Peacekeepers, Peeta steps in. They stand awkwardly, arms wrapped around themselves as if they don't know what to do. Finally, with two of their three minutes already wasted, Peeta walks toward her and wraps his arms around her.

"You have to win," he says. He looks to be fighting tears. "Will you come back?"

She shrugs. She's already told her goodbyes to Prim and she doesn't know if she's strong enough to outlast unless, like Annie, her arena floods. She knows how to fish, but how will her patience with a rod help her kill when a second's hesitation could mean she gets beheaded?

Peeta shakes his head. "No, listen to me, you're coming home," he says. He reaches into his pocket and withdraws a necklace with a bit of sea glass as the pendant, wrapping it around her neck.

"Why do you want me to come home?" she asks.

He shrugs. "You know why," he says.

But, she really doesn't. She knows that he's been watching her for years, always protecting her, but she doesn't know why.

When the Peacekeepers give their warning knock, he kisses her forehead. "Here's the deal, you win, you come back, and I'll be here like Annie was for Finnick. All you have to worry about is winning. I'll figure out the rest."

The Peacekeepers open up the door and Peeta, like Prim, is dragged out. "Katniss, I – " he starts, but his words are cut off by the closing doors.

On the train, Finnick pulls her away from the male tribute and shows her his bracelet, his token, the one she gave him nine years ago. But he looks conflicted.

"Tell me," he says. "If you win, do you have someone that can piece you back together?"

She thinks back to the Justice Building. She thinks back to when she was younger. Peeta's been piecing her back together for years. She nods her head.

"Okay," he says. He looks at her, as if trying to memorize her face, and then turns around. He walks to the doorway and then pauses. He sighs and then walks out completely.

When he's gone, Katniss looks out the window. District Four is so far off in the distance, it's almost as if she's looking out at the horizon. She can't see it, but she knows there's something out there if she swims far enough into the sun. She closes her eyes and thinks of a boy with curls the color of a spring dandelion, skin as white as the water lily's petals from when she was twelve. He is the Annie to her Finnick. If she swims far enough, she'll make it through the horizon, and he'll be there. Always.

* * *

_First off, I want to thank everyone who has been reading and reviewing thus far. Schools been so hectic for me that I haven't gotten a chance to sit down and reply to any reviews for this story or _They Shall Not Break_, and I just wanted to tell you all thank you here. _

_Speaking of _They Shall Not Break_, I know some of you readers are reading that as well and I wanted to let you know that Part II is coming along, slowly but surely. Peeta is being a little stubborn with his narration. I've had the whole part outlined for a month and I just can't seem to get from Point A to Point B the way I would like to – I've got a document labeled 'TSNB cut parts' and it's 40 pages. Yikes, hate to see that. So, for those of you who have asked me about that, just be a little more patient. It's coming. I promise._

_Anyway, I digress. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed District Four as much as I did. I always enjoyed the parallel SC made between Katniss and Peeta and Finnick and Annie, so I knew that's what I wanted to do here, which meant it was just as much about Katniss and Finnick (and Finnick and Annie) as it was Katniss and Peeta. I hope you all enjoyed it and didn't mind that it wasn't solely about Katniss and Peeta like the first three districts have been. This is the part that gave me the idea for this entire story when I found the quote for this part on Pinterest. My original quote for this part wasn't even a quote actually; it was "_Paralian (n.) one who lives by the sea" _and then I changed it at the last minute because none of the other districts had dictionary definitions and I thought the Cousteau quote fit with the 'always' theme, but I figured I'd give it here because I liked the word and thought if any of you wanted to use it for your stuff it would be out there._

_Thanks for reading. District Five up next!_


	5. Part V: District Five

Part V

* * *

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

* * *

_District Five_

* * *

She watches Katniss Everdeen from across the playground. The five-year-old is easily becoming the most popular girl in class. She wears her hair in two braids on either side of her head and is clothed in a red plaid dress. All of the other girls are so impressed by her singing that they crowd her afterward.

The girl raises an eyebrow and turns away from Katniss Everdeen. There isn't much special about her. She's not the smartest nor is she the kindest. And she's not even the prettiest. She keeps her head tilted away from the gaggle of girls crowding Katniss. They look like geese wanting bits of old bread.

On the other side of the playground, the boys are doing some sort of agility test. They're lined up to race side-by-side with one boy in the middle to wave a makeshift start flag. They begin, running faster and faster toward the finish, but one of the boys trips and falls. Peeta Mellark, who was near the lead, stops when he hears the wail and runs back, helping the boy up.

The girl looks away from the boys as well and keeps herself hidden under the slide.

* * *

In the second grade, they dissect a cow's eye.

There's an odd number, so she dissects alone. Every other group is paired boy-girl, and the two at the table across from her just so happen to be Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark.

It's the first she's really seen of them in a while. Both were in the other first grade class and she sits in the front of the room now, whereas Katniss sneaks a seat in the back and Peeta takes whatever's left when he walks in late, typically with a bruise on his face. She notices that Wednesdays are worse than any other day of the week for him and she often wonders what happens to him to become so bruised.

Across the table, Katniss squeals and buries her face in her hands. "Eww, that's gross," she says.

The girl looks up from her eye to see that Katniss is wobbling on her feet, her face a sickly pale. She's going to faint. The girl rolls her eyes at Katniss's behavior.

Peeta turns and sets down the tiny knife he's using to cut into the eye. "Are you okay?" he asks.

Katniss shakes her head. "I need to sit."

Ever the gentleman, Peeta pulls out a seat and lets her sit, watching her intently and forgetting all about the dissection. He quickly walks to his backpack and grabs his juice box, handing it to her along with his snack crackers. "Here, it might help," he says.

The teacher walks over and eyes the two with exasperation. She's been dealing with rule breaking all day and eating at the dissection desks is not allowed. It's dangerous. _No one wants to digest part of the eye, right, class? Right, Ms. Newberry._

"Miss Everdeen," the teacher says, Katniss's face already the color of blood from embarrassment, but Peeta cuts her off.

"No, it's my fault, Ms. Newberry," he says. "I forgot we weren't allowed to snack and Katniss was taking it away from me. I didn't listen to the rules."

The teacher looks skeptical, but walks away nonetheless after giving Peeta a warning. She strides to the front of the classroom and puts a checkmark next to his name on the board and everyone in class turns to look at Katniss and Peeta, wondering what happened for Peeta to get a check next to his name.

The girl looks at Katniss and Peeta too. She's the only one close enough to hear the quiet _thanks_ escape Katniss's lips and the soft _you're welcome_ Peeta gives in return.

* * *

She's observant. That's how she knows Willow Hanson was the one who erased the detention list during recess. It's how she knows the girls in her class like to giggle about her features, her bright red hair and foxy-nose. She's observant enough to notice that their teachers always look at the student they are going to call on while they read the question, and she knows when she needs to pay attention so she doesn't end up making a fool out of herself like Tric Emerson did when he was called on.

And that's how she comes to realize that Peeta Mellark has developed a sizable crush on Katniss Everdeen sometime after the incident with the eye dissection when no one else seems to notice, even Katniss herself.

It's not as if the two need any more friends. Peeta and Katniss are already extremely popular, but in the third grade the other gender still has cooties so the girls and boys typically stick to themselves. But, now Katniss and Peeta wave to each other across the playground. They even walk home from school together. It's such scandal, really, in the third grade.

The girl shakes her head while she listens to some of Katniss's _friends_ talk about how Katniss better be washing her hands very well when she gets home. The girl wonders if she's the only one that realizes that cooties aren't real.

Well, she's not the only one. Katniss must realize it too.

But, it's interesting for her to watch. The boys all tease Peeta for being nice to a girl and the girls all giggle when Katniss comes to school with Peeta one Wednesday, late by twenty minutes and Peeta housing a large bruise on his face. The following Wednesday the same thing happens. And again the Wednesday after that. She begins to notice a pattern that even the teacher seems to be missing (or ignoring) and the other kids in class begin to see as normal.

So, on the next Wednesday, she decides to see what causes them to be late.

She doesn't know where they meet, but she lives down the street from the Everdeens, so she hides in a bush. Katniss skips out of her house and down the steps, walking down the road to where she knows the Mellarks live a few streets over. District Five is not very large and it's laid out in a grid. She knows, just as everyone in Five does, where everyone lives.

She follows just far enough behind Katniss that the other girl doesn't notice. Katniss walks quickly, her braids flopping on her shoulders. Watching as Katniss hides, crouched under the porch, she herself hides in a bush in the yard of the house next to the Mellark home.

Suddenly, the door slams open and Peeta comes running out, his bag on his shoulders bouncing off his back. His mother stands in the doorway with a rolling pin, hitting her hand with it much like a teacher does a ruler.

Peeta flies down the steps and down the road, his mother watching him go. Once she shuts the door, Katniss steps out from her place under the stairs and she runs to catch up to Peeta. Not wanting to alert either to her presence, the girl in the bush only walks, and so she gets to the two much later.

Katniss is sitting in the big field that borders the gate to the Victor's Village, separating it from where everyone else in Town lives. She has her little stringy arms wrapped around Peeta as he presses his face into her shoulder. Even from her distance, she can see the dark purple mark on the back of his neck, just barely uncovered by his t-shirt.

"I don't think mommas are supposed to hit their babies," Katniss says.

Peeta pulls back and looks at her, blinking back tears. "You mean yours doesn't?"

* * *

Their teachers tell them that the children of District Five are some of the brightest in the country, but she doesn't really believe that. There are dumb kids in Five, just as there are probably rocket scientists in Twelve. They just have different circumstances. And, it doesn't really matter anyway, because they have no power in the districts. It's just the way it is.

They harness the power in Five. Her father is a electrician. Her mother works on perfecting solar energy. It's a clever way to convince them that they have at least some power over their lives, but those in Five aren't stupid. They realize the oppression. They see their children die. They just know that there's nothing that they can do with a district so small that it rivals Twelve.

It actually starts out with a very simple question asked by Peeta Mellark when they are in the sixth grade.

"What will happen to Twelve and their coal mining if we figure out solar energy and wind power? Won't the Capitol not need them anymore?"

It's nearly blasphemy. Their teacher changes the subject.

* * *

Katniss Everdeen always made big statements. With her singing. With her clothing. With her choice of friends. And now she's done it again.

She's kissed a boy.

Even she has to raise her eyebrows at the statement Katniss has made. They have a small break during the Games where the schools close down and the workers get time off to watch. It starts the day of the reaping and continues until the victor is crowned. It's their first reaping and the kiss happens when the doors to the Justice Building close.

She prides herself on being observant, but she never saw this one coming.

They both look flustered when it happens. They pull back with eyes widened and cheeks tinged red. But, when Peeta smiles shyly at her, Katniss's confidence grows. She grabs his hand and skips away from the crowd of twelve-year-olds, every one of them flabbergasted by what they've just seen and emotionally spent from their day.

After that, they become inseparable. She's always kind of thought of them as Katniss and Peeta before, unlike her classmates who thought of them as friends and single-entities. But she knew they were close, ever since she saw them huddled in the meadow. Now, the school just knows them the same way she does.

Katniss&Peeta.

They're always touching. They sit next to each other in class and bump knees under the table. They hold hands in the hallways. Peeta carries Katniss on his back as they walk place to place. Sometimes she'll see them walking like this on lazy Saturday afternoons. And it's always worse on Wednesdays. During their breaks, she'll see Katniss fussing over a bruise on Peeta's face, hissing about it being all her fault.

"It's my fault. Your mother hates me," she hears Katniss say at the beginning of the ninth grade.

Peeta shakes his head and winces as Katniss presses a cold pack from the nurse to his face. "No, she hates everyone," he says.

"Yeah, but she hates me more."

"No, she hates your mother, but that's not why she hits me and you know it."

She thinks she might have witnessed Katniss&Peeta's first fight, but after a stare down, Katniss lets out a breath and presses her face to Peeta's neck. Katniss mumbles something against his skin that she can't hear from the distance, but she can see Peeta's eyes close.

"I know. It's getting better. I'm getting too big for her to actually hit, now it's just threats."

"That's not better."

He sighs.

* * *

In the third grade, she overheard Katniss call her Foxface once. She had been so upset at the nickname that she'd run home after school crying. Now, looking back on it, she kind of embraces it. She likes how she blends into the crowd so much that no one really knows her. They don't know her name or anything aside from her outward appearance. She can think whatever she wants and no one will know. She mostly just ruminates on power, and her lack of it, and the fact that – no matter what – no one in the district will have any. She wonders if that's the true motivation behind Mrs. Mellark's abuse. It's the only power she really has.

She turns sixteen after the reaping, so she's one of the youngest in her class. She watches everyone else's birthdays come and go with an announcement from the front office and some sort of special celebration. When Katniss's birthday falls in the beginning of May, she can't help but feel jealous when she sees Peeta give her a cupcake during lunch, as well as a kiss on the cheek.

She wonders if she'll ever have something like that, someone who knows and cares about her more than she knows and cares about herself. She doesn't think so. She already knows everything there is to know about herself and no one has ever tried to get close to her. She's just Foxface to them.

Their school ends the last week of June because the reaping is always the first Sunday of July. This year, they go right up until the twenty-ninth and all the kids are shaking in fear on that Friday, knowing that two of their classmates will be gone on Sunday.

She goes to the bathroom to get away from it all.

It's not that she's not nervous about the reaping – because she is – but she doesn't see the point of worrying about it. Why waste time? There are more important things going on. She pulls out a book and skims the pages. She's already read it before, but there's only so many pre-Dark Days books she can get her hands on. This one's fairly interesting and her father gave it to her for her last birthday. _Anna Karenina_ by Leo Tolstoy. It's even pre-Panem.

She's halfway through when the door to the bathroom slams open. Whoever it is shuts the main door and locks it before heading into one of the stalls. She hears the girl opening something, some shuffling, and she tries to ignore it and read her book. The girl will leave soon.

But she doesn't. The girl who slammed in flushes the toilet and there's a clink against the sink. She washes her hands but doesn't leave, instead deciding to pace the floor.

She realizes that the girl probably thinks she's alone and it feels like an invasion of her privacy, but there's really not much to do. She can't very well leave her stall now. The girl will know. She goes back to her book, reading the lines slowly so she can focus and not think about the girl, but she's curious as to what she's still doing. She's always been curious about the doings of other people.

Then, she hears the girl gasp. It's silent for a minute. Then the girl flops down on the floor next to the sinks and starts to cry.

She closes her book and sets it down in her bag. Very carefully, she clicks the door open so she can peer out and see what's going on. Katniss Everdeen is sitting on the floor, her legs curled up to her chest, her face pressed to her knees. She cries softly at first, building up to sobs that wrack her body, and then calms back down toward the end of the period. When the warning bell rings, Katniss stands and looks at herself in the mirror, splashing some water on her blotchy face and taking a few deep breaths before taking something off the counter and throwing it in the trash. She unlocks the door and walks out, never once acknowledging that she wasn't alone.

The girl scratches her head and pulls her bag over her shoulder, pushing open the door to the stall. She washes her hands and peers into the trashcan while she soaps her hands. She's not going to pick through the trash, but if she can see what made Katniss so upset –

She feels her eyes widen. Katniss didn't do a very good job at hiding it. The girl looks up into the mirror and shakes her head, not even sure what to think.

Katniss Everdeen is pregnant.

That just doesn't happen in District Five. They're an obedient bunch. They do as they're told and their residents are medically well cared for. Everything the Capitol denies them, though, the citizens are smart enough and educated enough to create themselves and, as a diversion, they're required to have one child per marriage at the minimum. It's never been a problem before and girls go to Mrs. Everdeen all the time for birth control.

Of course, she doesn't know the dynamics of the Everdeen house, but she does know that Mrs. Everdeen has made it clear that Katniss isn't old enough for a boyfriend and begrudgingly let it happen because Mr. Everdeen convinced her Peeta was a good enough kid. No wonder Katniss ended up like this. She's the only girl in the district that can't go to the dispensary at the hospital, where Mrs. Everdeen is the boss.

_This is going to cause a stir_, she thinks. _The entire district is going to be up in arms._

At least to her knowledge, there has never been a teenage pregnancy in District Five. It will be interesting to see the fallout. She thinks about it all weekend, wondering how the district will react. She knows that there are people who think they shouldn't undermine the Capitol. There's a reason why the Capitol only gives them so much. She knows that there will be people who will use this to show why they need better access than they already have. Stop with the almost black-market-esque retail and hand it out right under the Capitol's noses.

It'll question how much they should really rebel.

But, fate has other plans.

The girl watches as Katniss Everdeen's name is called. She looks to her side as Katniss's eyes widen and her hands unconsciously go to wrap around her waist. As Katniss bites her lip, she starts to shake. Across the aisle, everyone can see Peeta pushing through the crowd of boys, his eyes frantic as his friends attempt to grab him.

Katniss has no idea that she was in the bathroom that day, but as she walks through the group to volunteer, she gently lets her knuckles brush against Katniss's arms, wrapped around her still-flat abdomen. Katniss looks up at her, her gray eyes wide with shock, but the girl just keeps walking. She doesn't even say that she volunteers. She just strides up to take Katniss Everdeen's place. This is her only chance to have any sort of power and, fittingly, it's the power to choose death.

She waits for the boy. It's another no name. Another one just like her who doesn't cause drama or make himself known. She takes a deep breath as she's shoved into the Justice Building, quickly running through all the plants she learned about in her herb class last year.

"And what is this one?" their teacher had asked, pointing to the overhead. She'd known, but she never raised her hand in class.

Katniss Everdeen had raised her hand instead.

"That's nightlock. You'll be dead before they reach your stomach."

* * *

_This is the only chapter told through the point of view of someone else, but I thought it would fit Five to have Foxface tell us the tale. _

_This chapter came by thinking about the Foxface headcanon that she ate the nightlock on purpose. I wanted to show the power struggle because Five is the power district, and yet they're still oppressed. I hope that came off. The last line is the line Katniss's father gives her in the book about nightlock._

_The name Tric I used in the beginning is from 'electric' since District Five is about harnessing energy. _

_I hope everyone in the States had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. District Six will be up next week and, hopefully, Part II of They Shall Not Break will be up before that._

_Again, thank you so much for the wonderful reviews! I'm sorry I haven't gotten a chance to reply to any of them. I'm so busy at school I barely have time to write and read the stories I have on alert. But just know that I love reading them and you all are so kind._

_Thanks for reading!_


	6. Part VI: District Six

_*This part assumes that District Six is, on top of the transportation district, the district that produces medicine, such as morphling. More on this will be discussed at the end to avoid spoilers._

* * *

Part VI

* * *

"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow."

Lin Yutang

* * *

_District Six_

* * *

His first stop, like seventy-one other victors prior to him, is District Twelve. The first thing he does when he steps on stage, their mayor halfheartedly clapping for him while the rest of the district stares, is cough. The coal dust sticks in his throat and he doesn't know how anyone could possibly live in Twelve without suffocating to death.

Haymitch Abernathy, Twelve's only living victor, comes late as usual and, in a display of drunken glory, topples off the stage when he's supposed to shake the newest victor's hand. Abernathy's own district gives a mixed response. Some giggle, others sigh and roll their eyes, but Peeta Mellark just watches in horror as they let him lay there, just in front of the stage, completely unconscious to the world. His own mentors are no better – both addicted to morphling – and he knows he'll be just the same in time.

* * *

It was sort of a tradition. The night after a reaping all of the kids in the district would go out to the edge and skip on the tracks, waiting for the Death Trains, as they liked to call the tribute trains, to come barreling through. The trains from Eleven and Twelve always stopped to refuel in Six, and the kids would play a game of who could stand in front of the train the longest before jumping out of the way.

The eleven-year-olds were the youngest that were allowed to come, considering they would be eligible for the reaping the next year. It was like an initiation, in a way.

Peeta was currently in second place. Last year he'd only lost to his brother and this year was the rematch.

He and Leaven stood side-by-side on the tracks. It was late and Twelve's train would be coming soon. They could just barely make out the lights in the distance. The trains were quick, two-hundred miles an hour, but they always slowed going through Six to about seventy or so, maybe a little less.

"You think you can beat me, little brother?" Leaven teased as the lights flickered.

Peeta shrugged. "You won't be laughing when I win."

His brother laughed and eyed the train in the distance. They could make out the shape now.

A group of kids stood to the side, some cheering his name and some cheering for his brother. He tuned them out and focused on the train charging in toward the station behind them. The girls to his left were shrieking in excitement, calling his name, and he tried to close his ears. He had just about maintained a hundred percent focus when a small crash and squeal echoed in the air.

He let his head turn briefly, knowing it wouldn't take more than a few seconds to see what it was. A tiny blonde child was about ninety yards back, her foot stuck in the track, and her arms wrapped around a mustard yellow kitten. She wiggled her foot but she was clearly stuck, looking up with wide eyes and yelping.

Peeta turned back toward the train. Then to his brother. Then to the girl.

And then he turned and ran down the track.

It took some wiggling and she lost her shoe, but he managed to pull the girl up into his arms just as the train came barreling through, the speed knocking most of the kids standing next to the tracks to the ground. The train's motions made the lights on the fence flicker on and the Peacekeepers at the station came running. It wasn't unlike every other year, but this was the only year Peeta had to carry someone else with him while he ran. He dove into an abandoned shack while the Peacekeepers chased the groups of kids away from the train.

"Why were you on the tracks?" Peeta asked.

She was a tiny thing and he didn't know her name. Six was a decently sized district and there were plenty of people he didn't know, this girl included. She was tiny and he barely believed she was old enough to be out there.

The girl lifted the kitten, which was tiny and frail and quite possibly the ugliest thing Peeta had ever seen. "He was hidden under the rail. He was stuck," she said, her voice still the high-pitched near lisp of a preteen. "I couldn't let him die."

Peeta's upper lip curled, but he sighed. "Let's get you home, okay?"

On the walk home he found out her name was Primrose Everdeen. She was eleven – "just turned" – and they had never crossed paths. She lived on the other end of the district and her father was one of the engineers. The district called them Devils, the drivers of the tribute trains. Devils and their Death Trains. He might have even been driving the train that would've killed his daughter.

Primrose grasped the doorknob to her home, but before she turned it all the way, she spun back to him and looked sheepish. "Don't tell my sister where we were," she said. "Katniss doesn't even know about the track hopping. I don't want her to."

He didn't know what kid in the district didn't know about it, but he nodded his head. He didn't even think he'd meet her sister. He was just dropping her off.

However, as soon as the door opened a crack, a girl on the other side slammed it open and looked relieved to see Primrose. "Prim!" she said. She went to grab her but stopped when she noticed the kitten. "What is _that_?"

"It's Buttercup!" Prim squealed.

The girl looked over Prim's shoulder to Peeta and he felt his heart stop. She was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. "Who's that?"

Prim smiled. "This is Peeta," she said. "He's my new friend."

* * *

He breathes again in Eleven. There's a soft breeze that carries through the square and the group watching is so large he has to wonder how Eleven operates with so many people. He deduces that it's the largest district of them all and yet their victor count is only slightly bigger than Twelve's.

Peeta bites his bottom lip when he thinks of Eleven's tributes, one more so than the other. Rue had reminded him so much of Prim and, despite not having met her, he felt like he knew her. Which, he realizes, is preposterous and another way for the Capitol to control him.

No. Rue is not Prim. Rue was probably so different from the little blonde he saved on the tracks.

So, when he finally goes to make his speech, he breathes again. But he chokes.

* * *

"My sister doesn't have any friends," Prim told him one day toward the end of the Seventy-Third Hunger Games. Both of their tributes were already dead and it was a waiting game to see which massive tribute from One or Two would win the inevitable duel. "I think you should be her friend."

He coughed from his place behind the register at his family's bakery. "Why me?"

Prim shrugged. "I think you're nice," she said. She bit her lip. "And you won't be mean to her."

After the night on the tracks, he'd asked his brothers about what they knew of the Everdeens. Rye had said that their mother was the one of the district's healers and, as Peeta already knew, the father was a Devil. But, her mother did most of her work from home because there was something wrong with the older girl. The little one skipped around the district like a ray of sunshine, but barely anyone had seen the older one.

"Okay," Peeta said.

Prim smiled. "Great!" she said and then she batted her eyelashes. "And, can you take Buttercup? I'll feed him and take care of him, but my mother says I can't keep him in the house with Kat – well, can you?"

He nodded his head. He couldn't very well banish the cat to the street after Prim risked her life to save it. She grinned and told him that they could pick him up at her house after his shift. She had put the cat in a box in front of the house and the animal didn't move, waiting for her to return. She would continue like this, but the poor thing would freeze in the winter and, because of his generosity, she thanked Peeta profusely. He wondered vaguely what his parents were going to say if they found a cat wandering the house, but Prim was so thrilled and her enthusiasm was contagious.

She nearly dragged him home with her.

The cat was obediently sitting in the box, just as Prim said it would be, but she pulled him into the house. "Momma? Katniss?"

"In here, Prim."

She motioned for Peeta to follow her and he stepped back slightly when he walked into the Everdeens' backroom, which looked like Mrs. Everdeen's medical office. The girl he had never formally met – since the night he dropped Prim off she slammed the door in his face – but assumed was Katniss was laying face down on the table. Mrs. Everdeen stood above her, her hands cupped and hitting her daughter's back. Peeta closed his eyes for a moment and remembered his own mother's hits, but Mrs. Everdeen didn't look angry or full of hatred like his own. In fact, she looked up and smiled while she continued.

"Who's this, Prim?" she asked, pausing and leaning down to say something in her older daughter's ear. Katniss turned her head toward her mother and coughed, taking in a deep breath.

"This is Peeta," Prim said. "He's taking Buttercup. He's Katniss's age."

At that, Katniss spun her head and looked at him, turning a shade of red, and pressed her face back into the table, bringing her arms up to cover her. Mrs. Everdeen rolled her eyes and smiled at Peeta.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Peeta. I hope Prim didn't weasel you into it."

"She didn't," he said politely. His eyes flickered back down to Katniss, but the girl refused to look at him, her face firmly planted in her forearms.

"Peeta's going to hang out with me," Prim said. "You should come with us, Katniss."

A muffled sound escaped from her head area and Mrs. Everdeen shook her head. "No, you _are_ finished. And I think it would be a good idea."

A groan echoed through the small room and when she looked up, Peeta didn't know if he wanted to hang out with Prim's beautiful sister. She looked like she wanted to murder her mother. And Prim. And she didn't look happy with him either.

* * *

_Johanna Mason looks pissed_, he thinks.

Of course, he did kill her tributes. Well, he didn't, but someone did and he's the embodiment of it. They all are though – the embodiment of death. He's no longer an innocent child. He may only be sixteen, nearly seventeen, but he might as well be seventy and crippled with age. He's seen so much.

Seven is so close to home. He just wants to go home.

* * *

Devils were the best jobs in the district. It paid better than anything else and on top of that all Devils did other things throughout the year. Mr. Everdeen was also a train mechanic, so the Everdeens lived in a nice part of the district. Their house was clean. They ate better than his family did. (Although, he later found out that Mr. Everdeen hunted illegally in the woods outside the district, so that might have added to it.) As he continued to follow Prim to her house each day, he began to actually enjoy his visits.

And, although she wasn't happy about it, Katniss joined in their card games or their small talk – at least to listen – and he found that he enjoyed her presence. After his first month, he tried to actively involve her in the conversation. A month after that, she would sit on the couch with him and Prim instead of in the chair across the room. And in October, when Prim decided to join an after school science club, which was dedicated to stopping the morphling addiction problem raging through their district, he continued to come and Katniss would sit right next to him. He did most of the talking, but it was still nice.

He realized right around then that he was falling for her – fast and hard.

It was December before he plucked up the courage to kiss her cheek when he left for the day. Her skin had an odd taste, salty – as if she had been crying all day. But it wasn't a bad taste. He licked his lips after and Katniss's eyes fell to the ground before looking back up at him. She didn't say anything. She coughed and turned around, walking back toward the room Mrs. Everdeen was always in during their meetings, and he turned around to walk home himself.

The next day Primrose sat down at the counter at the bakery.

"You were supposed to be her friend!" she hissed, looking angry for the first time since he met her.

"I am her friend," he hissed back.

Prim scrunched up her face. "You kissed her."

"So?" It was a lame answer, though, and he nearly winced at how weak it sounded.

The tiny blonde shook her head. "Peeta," she said, and then she let out a breath. "You can't fall in love with her."

"And why not?" he asked. He thought about Katniss and tried to come up with a reason why they would be so wrong for each other. Why were they so star-crossed? All he had seen was a beautiful girl who was quiet but made him laugh. But, as Prim stared at him, he closed his eyes and thought deeper about her, basically painting her picture in his head. Her face pallid, dark bruises under her eyes, which were a hauntingly pale shade of gray. Her mother was usually finishing up with whatever routine they did when he arrived. "What's going on?"

Prim wiggled uncomfortably in the seat across from him. "I didn't tell you because I wanted you open-minded."

"She's dying, isn't she?" It wasn't a question.

Primrose didn't say anything. She didn't need to. The answer bounced off the silent walls.

* * *

Four is beautiful and if he had to live somewhere besides Six for the rest of his life, it would be Four. He'd build a cottage on the water and look out over the waves, hear them crash against the sand, hot with sun. It's February and it's still warm. He sinks his toes into the water's edge and closes his eyes. He smells the salt off the waves and it reminds him of Katniss.

He could live in Four, but it wouldn't be home.

* * *

Prim said their mother called it Sixty-Five Roses, but no one really knew much. The Capitol probably had a pill she could take and be entirely well, but in the districts patients of every kind were forced to suffer through prolonged illness and agonizing death, if hunger didn't get them first.

He had to leave work after Prim told him everything.

"Momma thinks she's living on borrowed time. Most of the other kids with similar symptoms only live to be about reaping age, even with the medicines she makes. She thinks it might be because she's with her all the time that she's still here." Prim sighed. "She has trouble breathing and she can't keep weight on even when we have plenty to eat. That's why Daddy hunts extra. We have to keep feeding her."

Rye had told him it was stupid to get involved with the Everdeen girl. Told him that if there was something wrong with her to just get along with his own life. He almost wished he had listened, because then he could just ignore it. But he didn't listen and now he couldn't ignore it.

He knocked on the Everdeens' door a few weeks after Prim told him and when Prim called her sister to the door to get it, he wasted no time pulling Katniss outside and kissing her properly.

"I don't care," he told her. "I love you, Katniss Everdeen."

He spent every day he wasn't working after school at the bakery with her. Mrs. Everdeen taught him how to cup his hands and hit her back to help her breathe. He had never really noticed how weak she was or how much she struggled until then. Before he'd worn rose-colored glasses. She'd been perfect.

She still was perfect, just in her own way.

* * *

Caesar Flickerman asks him which district was his favorite to visit. He shakes his head and, not wanting to play favorites, describes his favorite parts of every district. It's hard because after awhile they all blurred into one congealed blob, but he answers and Caesar is thrilled.

What he doesn't say is that he hasn't gotten to his favorite yet. He hasn't been home.

* * *

It was an odd romance, but one that made his heart sing. He kissed her cheeks, afraid that if he kissed her lips she'd lose her breath. Katniss's laugh was musical and his jokes were corny, but she laughed anyway. He would see Mrs. Everdeen come in every once in a while, peeking in to grin a somber smile. Once he was walking out as Mr. Everdeen was walking in after a long day's work and the older man shook his hand, thanking him.

Prim came running into his room in the Justice Building after he was reaped into the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games, begging him to come back. He tried his hardest to get back home, to Katniss, knowing his victory would be bittersweet. It was more bitter than sweet, but he came home – demons and all – to a Katniss so tired she could barely keep her eyes open.

By the time he left for the Victory Tour, he wasn't sure he would even come back to the same Six. When a message came in from the mayor for him – _Primrose Everdeen wanted you to know her sister has contracted a respiratory infection _– he wanted to grab his Devil and beeline it home, but he knew he couldn't. He had to give his interview to Caesar.

And then he could go home.

* * *

The train stops in District Six. Peeta lets out a deep breath and opens his eyes, watching out the window that his head rests on. He hates traveling, just like everyone in his district. Traveling, for those in District Six, is synonymous with tribute. They don't travel otherwise, unless they're lucky enough to be chosen as one of the few engineers that go once a year to deliver the tributes.

There's a large crowd waiting for him but he doesn't really care about the parties and festivals. He's glad his district will be fed, but he's not planning on staying. He's ditching as soon as he can get away from his pink-haired escort, the woman who is likely to hound him like a hungry dog.

But he has nothing to feed her. He just wants to go home.

The district isn't known for dancing, but the children happily giggle and the mechanics all move with the weight of a day's work, preparing for the train to come in. But the smiles make everything he's been through almost seem worth it. Almost.

A hand slips into his and tugs him away from the stage. He allows his feet to drag as he's pull through the masses of people. They slip through the crowds undetected and walk through the streets silently, walking right passed the gates to the Victor's Village and away from the shanty shacks the residents live in. The tiny blonde leads him nearly to the district line and into her home. They climb up the stairs to the second floor and she stops outside the door, allowing him to enter alone.

The sounds of her wheezing hit his ears and he curls into the bed behind her, kissing the back of her neck, savoring the salty taste of her skin. She tries to say something, probably his name, but he shakes his head.

"Shh," he says, curling his fingers with hers and using his other hand to rub her back in circles. "I'm here. I'm home."

And he is home. He's home with her.

"Relax," he coos in her ear. And then he says the thing he knows she needs to hear. "Let go."

That night the wheezing stops. Despite how exhausted he is from parading around the districts, he stays awake to make sure he's rubbing her back and kissing her neck. He continues this even as the sun begins to rise in the sky beyond the windows. There's an old syringe on the table beside her bed, half-full of morphling her mother had been giving her to keep any pain at bay. He thinks about it for a moment, about his mentors, and then presses his face into her hair. He's not going to become them.

If there's anything he learned from Katniss Everdeen, it's to make your own rules to the situation you're given. She never gave up and she lived on even when she wasn't supposed to, pushed through the storms when her parents thought it was the end time and time again. He'll live for her. He'll remember her struggles when his seem too heavy to bear.

He won't be a piece in their Games.

* * *

_I'm sorry. Originally, this chapter had one of the happier endings of the parts, but then I wrote the flashbacks and...there's sort of a morbid Katniss dying theme in these earlier districts that I'm noticing now that I'm posting them. So, I feel like I need to explain myself, considering (at least in my mind) this is the most far-fetched of the districts._

_I wrote this chapter while my genetics class was learning about the inherited mutation that causes Cystic Fibrosis (which is the illness I paralleled with Katniss). While researching Six for this chapter, I found a theory that Six is the district which makes medicines/is the most medically advanced, evidenced by the morphlings. It worked for what I wanted to explore, which is the differences in medical care between the Capitol and the districts. _

_Sixty-Five Roses (or 65 Roses) is a registered trademark of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and a phrase used by CF patients to describe their illness, coming about because it's easier to say for younger kids. To be honest, I think that Katniss surviving as long as she did, with the conditions the districts are in, is a stretch. Today, the quality of life for those with CF is improving as well as their life expectancy (according to CFF the median age of survival is late thirties), but even as late as the 1950s children were barely making it to elementary school. Wikipedia gives an old German and Swiss rhyme from the 18th century which translates to "Woe to the child who tastes salty from a kiss on the brow, for he is cursed and soon must die." I'm assuming this district had fairly decent access to medical care, much more so than the other districts, and that Mrs. Everdeen was more of a pharmacist/chemist/nurse/doctor than a "healer" despite that being her given title. _

_For those of you who want to learn more about Cystic Fibrosis, the website I used for my research (besides Wikipedia) was cffdotorg. I have never known anyone personally with CF, but I hope that the research I did has given it justice and that no one out there read this and is offended. _

_Sorry, just my biology major getting into my work. I hope you enjoyed it._


	7. Part VII: District Seven

Part VII

* * *

"Dead, we become the lumber of the world."

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester

* * *

_District Seven_

* * *

There are several different logging camps in Seven. They are all connected to each other by thin roads just large enough to fit the trucks that carry the wood to the district center, where it is either shipped on trains as lumber or made into paper at a factory. Katniss Everdeen, in her eleven years, has only been to the district center eleven times, once every year to view the reaping.

The three hundred and sixty-four other days of the year she stays in Logging Camp 5.

It's a typical morning after the Games. Their tributes didn't win and so the district returns to its normal functioning. The men head out into the woods with the mules to fill their quotas. The women cook in the mess hall or hang laundry to dry or, in the case of her mother, stand in the one room schoolhouse.

Their schooling isn't like that of the other districts – or even in the district center, she thinks. They don't learn to read or write and instead they learn the practical lessons of dressing wounds from axes, how to triage a tree fall accident, and the first aid of blisters. Mrs. Jensen teaches the younger kids, those under eleven, about the basics and her mother, once your eleventh year reaping has passed, takes on the challenge of teaching the mechanics of helping the lumberjacks.

It's only girls that Katniss's mother teaches. Once the boys turn eleven and watch the reaping go by they head into the woods. The lumberjacks take pride in their work. It's dangerous and difficult, and their conditions are horrendous, but the culture thrives in the camps. They know everyone in their camp – everyone's business is hung on the laundry lines, just as their clothes are – and they spend the logger's day of rest, Sunday, in the small meadow between the group of log cabins, roasting the wild boar or white-tailed deer they catch in the woods. Although it's primitive, they know nothing else.

Katniss couldn't imagine anything else, but there are times when she becomes frustrated. Like now, for instance.

Liesl Mason giggles beside her as the group of girls watches the demonstration Mrs. Everdeen is giving. Mr. Andersen's hands are covered in bursting blisters and Katniss is slowly turning a more vibrant shade of green with each passing second. When her mother calls one of the older girls to the front, Katniss can taste the vomit in her throat.

She steals a look across the room. Prim is Mrs. Jensen's star pupil. Katniss rests her head on her forearms. She can't do this. She should have been born a boy. She'd be much better with an axe than gauze.

A gentle hand rests on her back and she looks up at her mother. The other girls have moved on, pretending to treat the unblistered hands of their partners, and Liesl is staring at her, waiting.

"Deep breaths," her mother says. "Just relax."

She can't. She wasn't born to be a healer.

On the way out of the schoolhouse, Johanna grabs both Katniss and Liesl by the arm and drags them around back. Liesl squirms, attempting to get away from her older sister, but Katniss has learned not to fight the fifteen-year-old. She does start to squirm when Johanna drags them into the woods.

"Hannie, where are we going?" Liesl moans, looking out at the tall pines.

Johanna drops them roughly on the forest floor, going toward a fallen log and digging under it. She withdraws a few axes and hands one to each eleven-year-old.

"You're eligible for the reaping next year," Johanna says and Katniss feels her stomach drop. She doesn't want to think about it. "I want you both prepared. Papa taught me the basics. Katniss, put that in a trunk."

Katniss looks down at the axe in her hand. She's always thought of Johanna as the older sister she never had, merely by the virtue that she'd grown up in Logging Camp 5, where everyone thought of each other as family, and she had been friends with Liesl since she could walk. But, the fact that Johanna is taking her out with Liesl into the woods makes her stomach surge with warmth. Maybe Johanna feels the same way about her.

She takes a swing. It's so much better than healing.

* * *

She couldn't eat anything the night before her first reaping and she still feels as though she's ready to throw up when she arrives at the front of the line. The attendance woman holds out her powdered-white hand and jabs the needle into Katniss's finger before pressing the drop of blood that forms onto the paper. The woman, with her long pink fingernails, grabs a palm-sized machine and scans the drop of blood.

_Everdeen, Katniss. 12 Y/O_

"Go ahead."

Katniss and the boy who was checked in at the line next to hers are shuffled forward by Peacekeepers. The boy next to her is also twelve, she realizes, as they pass by the rows of older kids on their way to the front. She turns her head to look at him. He's shaking in his shoes and his blond hair is a little too long, curling in his eyes as he swipes it away. He turns to her as the Peacekeeper shoves them in the direction of their places and offers her a small smile despite his fear.

She tries to ignore the beating of her heart. She's scared and so is he, but his smile is genuine. He, despite not even knowing her, wants her to feel better.

Liesl finds her immediately and the two clasp the other's hand with their own. They watch as the names are called, breathing out a sigh of relief when they realize the tributes aren't from Camp 5. The two are brought into the Justice Building and the crowds disperse and Katniss is thrilled that it wasn't her. It wasn't Liesl. It wasn't Johanna or anyone else in Camp 5.

And it wasn't the boy with the smile.

* * *

She doesn't know what it's like in the other logging camps, but in Camp 5 they celebrate birthdays like a small holiday. Even if the day is long and the morning is to come too soon, the men make a bonfire, roast animals on spits, and there's singing and dancing all through the night. Some of the oldest residents will tell tall tales to the smaller children and Prim is almost always in the storyteller's lap, wide-eyed with wonder and excitement.

Friedrich Mason's birthday is always the best. It's late in June and it gives them something to celebrate prior to the reaping. He turns sixteen and all of the older girls begin to comment that he's their Finnick Odair. Liesl, now thirteen and a teenager in every aspect of the word, rolls her eyes. Kurt, the Mason brother between Friedrich and Liesl, complains that he's better looking.

But, this year, Katniss can't shake the way her stomach has been flipping since the reaping the previous year. It's ridiculous, really, to be worried about the boy with the smile. He's not from her camp. She'll probably never see him again. The smile was merely a reflex.

She shakes her head just in time to see Greta Larsen press her lips to Friedrich's.

Katniss holds in her gasp, but she can feel her eyes widen and her cheeks heat like a summer's day. Beside her, Liesl giggles at the sight and Kurt slumps, storming away. Katniss turns away and covers her face with her hands, despite all the hooting and hollering she can hear from those around her.

It's not as if she's never seen people kiss. Her father and mother kiss, but she always turns away. The blush is fighting the olive tone of her skin, quickly receiving dominance. Before long, she's the color of the berries her father brings home.

She's still bright red when Johanna walks passed them. The seventeen-year-old chuckles and pinches Katniss's cheeks. "It's just a kiss, brainless."

* * *

She can just barely see him ahead of her in the boys' line. At least, she thinks it's him. It could be another boy with a head of curly blond hair. Almost as if sensing her stare, he turns around and their eyes meet. Katniss turns away instantaneously, but not before she could see the corners of his lips upturn in a smile.

"Katniss, this is ridiculous," she says to herself under her breath.

Liesl turns around. "What?"

She shakes her head and Liesl grabs her hand. They check in and take their spots with the other thirteen-year-olds. The mayor, victors, and escort walk out and Katniss keeps her eyes trained on the boys' side. She wants to know where the boy with the blond curls is standing. She doesn't know his name, so she wants to see him when the boy name is called. She wants to see him stay put.

"Ladies first!" their escort squeals. Katniss can barely hear over the click of her heels and she keeps her eyes trained on the boys. She can't find him. "Johanna Mason!"

Katniss is sure that Liesl is going to break her hand and it brings her back to reality. She loses the feeling in her fingers from Liesl's tight squeeze. Even after the male is called and both tributes are brought into the Justice Building, Liesl can't move. She stands beside Katniss in shock, her eyes still as wide as they were when the escort called her sister's name, and Katniss doesn't know what to do.

Mr. Mason lifts Liesl into his arms and walks toward the Justice Building. Katniss is nearly brought with them because Liesl won't let go. Their hands slip just before Katniss starts to drag and Liesl keeps her hand outstretched, trying to grab her again despite the distance growing between them.

* * *

The Victor's Village is located in the district center so, when Johanna wins the Seventy-First Hunger Games, the Masons move out of their log cabin in Camp 5. As much as Liesl is thrilled that her sister is home, she doesn't want to move and insists that Katniss be able to come for sleepovers. Her parents relent and Katniss eagerly awaits the weekends she travels to the new Mason home.

Or, she quickly realizes, the new Mason mansion.

Liesl shows her all of the interesting things the house has – like a study and a separate room just to eat that's not the kitchen. There are even secret passageways in the house. One in particular that Liesl shows her is in Johanna's closet. It leads to a wine cellar meant only for the victor and, apparently, Friedrich and Johanna had been down there a few times already, locking Liesl and Kurt out.

Liesl's room has two beds, one for each of them, and they're so comfortable Katniss sleeps through the morning on her first visit. She's never had a bed to herself before except on those occasions when Prim snuck in with their parents.

Johanna doesn't seem all that much different. She's still sarcastic and blunt. It's the little things, Katniss realizes, that have changed. She's now fiercely protective of Liesl and Kurt, even Friedrich, who doesn't need protection at all. She always was protective of them, but now it's more so than before, in that she always wants to know where they are or what they're doing. Liesl says she has nightmares and they can hear her screaming at night.

The second time Katniss sleeps over, Johanna wakes up the entire house with her screaming. Liesl and Katniss tiptoe out of the room. Friedrich is already in the doorway to Johanna's room and Kurt is hiding behind his own doorframe. The two girls peek in Johanna's room to see Mr. Mason holding her, rocking her back and forth, and Mrs. Mason singing an old lullaby as Johanna shakes.

_Bye, bye and hushabye _

_Can you see the swans fly?_

_Now half asleep in bed I lie _

_Awake with half an eye. _

_Heyho and welladay _

_Over hills and far away _

_That's where the little children stray _

_To find the lambs at play._

Katniss feels her stomach bubble unpleasantly at the sight of Johanna broken. The two girls scurry away before Mrs. Mason notices them in the doorway.

The next morning, the house is quiet and Liesl pulls Katniss out the door to explore the district center. It smells terribly of rotten eggs, so much that Katniss plugs her nose. Liesl tells her that the smell is from the paper mill's smokestacks, which coat the district center in a layer of stench and filmy air.

There is a group of boys in the street and Liesl says that they're from her new school. She's behind in what they're learning, but one of the boys, she says, is extremely helpful and is teaching her to read. Katniss doesn't know why she would need to know how to read but Liesl seems to like the boys and goes over to ask if they can play the ball game. Ever the Mason, she stomps right over and demands, rather than asks, for an invitation.

From the looks on the boys' faces, Katniss wonders if they're not slightly intimidated by the tiny brunette.

The point of the game is to kick the ball and run around a square, hitting four different rocks to score a point. Katniss watches Liesl first before taking her turn. They don't have balls at the logging camps, only what they can craft themselves out of the wood they steal from the forest. She steps up and looks at the pitcher and freezes. The pitcher does too.

It's the boy with the smile.

He rolls the ball more gently to her than she saw him do to the others. The speed gives her ample time to kick it and run to the rock without being called out. One of her teammates even scores a point. When she circles the field and steps on the last rock, a few of the boys even cheer for her.

She turns back to the boy with the blond curls. He never seems to stop smiling.

* * *

Johanna is called away for her Victory Tour in February and Katniss spends the weekend before her arrival home with the Masons. She's sitting on the snow-covered lawn with Liesl when they see a few trucks heading down the logging roads filled with buckets of water. It happens, sometimes, that a fire will catch in a logging camp and the district center will dispatch a few trucks they keep on hand. But, it's February and it's just snowed. The fire warning is exceptionally low.

The only think Katniss can think of is an uncontrollable bonfire. Or arson. But, she's never heard of anyone actually committing arson.

"Liesl! Katniss! Come inside before you freeze!"

They strip of their warm-weather clothes and snuggle with blankets in their pajamas. They giggle together until they fall asleep.

A loud crash wakes them in the night. Liesl reaches for the light but before she can do anything, the door to their room opens. Before Katniss can register what's going on, she is thrown over one of Friedrich's broad logger's shoulders, Liesl over the other.

"What's going on?" Liesl demands.

"Quiet!" Friedrich says. Katniss can see Kurt standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"Put me down!"

"Liesl, I said quiet!"

The fear in his voice makes Katniss gasp. At the same time, Kurt turns around. "Go up," he hisses to Friedrich. "They're coming."

Friedrich spins and runs back up the stairs, just as Katniss hears a gruff voice yell, "Found the kids!" She feels like she did when she fell out of a tree, all of the air leaving her lungs. Liesl reaches for one of her hands as Friedrich sprints to Johanna's room. There's a loud scream that sounds like Kurt, followed by a few brash thwacks.

Friedrich shuts the door and locks it behind him, his eyes damp, and turns. He stalks to the closet, opening the door and tossing the two girls inside, slamming the door shut as a fierce banging erupts on the bedroom door. The closet is thrust into darkness and Liesl crawls backwards.

"Katniss, back here."

Outside, she hears banging.

"Where's your sister?"

"She was spending the night back at Camp." Friedrich doesn't sound as though he's lying.

There's a laugh. "You liar," the gruff man says. "But, either way, she's dead. Your little logging camp is already decimated."

Katniss gasps and feels her eyes beginning to water. Prim. Her parents. Everyone. It was Camp 5 that had been on fire. And, from the sounds of it, these men were the ones in charge.

"Katniss," Liesl hisses, her voice laced with tears. "Hurry."

There is a door in the back of the closet, the one that leads to the wine cellar. Liesl pries open the door just as light streams into the closet. Liesl pushes Katniss through and then screams. Katniss grabs her hand, trying to pull her with her.

"Aha!" a man yells. "I got the girl!"

Liesl's hand slips out of Katniss's, her arm still extended, trying to grab on. Katniss reaches out with both hands. If she can just grab her hand. Just a little farther. But she's not strong enough. The man pulls Liesl out of the closet and Katniss can hear him toss her to the ground. Katniss shuts the door to the passage and all she hears after is a single gunshot. And then another. There's a crash and the door shakes. When she tries to open the door, it won't budge.

"That'll take care of the other," she hears the man say. "I'm not chasing her to the cellar."

She wants to cry. She wants to scream. She even opens her mouth but nothing comes out. Her body is shaking and she pushes the door. Nothing. It doesn't even jiggle. She leans against the wall. Someone will find her eventually.

Katniss doesn't know how long she stays in the closet. She wraps her arms around her knees, pulling them as close to her chest as she can. Her breaths come out in laborious gasps and she presses her forehead to her knees. Her eyes begin to wet and then itch.

And then she smells it. Smoke.

She pushes against the door and it still won't move. She breathes erratically. Her heart thumps in her chest. Her voice finally resurfaces. "Help!" she screams. The door feels warm to the touch. She pounds on it with her fists, ignoring the heat. "Help!"

She starts to have trouble breathing. The smoky air sticks in her throat and her screams weaken. She continues to pound as much as she can and screams until her voice goes hoarse. She's fighting consciousness when the door jiggles open and more smoke rushes in with the open doorway. She coughs as someone lifts her, dragging her out of the closet.

The room is licked in flames. The doorway to Johanna's room is a flaming rectangle. She wraps her arms around her savior's neck, her eyes trained on the flames until she's thrust into darkness. She feels a quilt over her body and then they're running. It's so warm. It's so smoky. She lets her eyes droop.

* * *

She wakes up to a smiling man she doesn't recognize but seems oddly familiar. He has light blond hair that curls in his eyes and pale skin, like Prim's. Prim. Katniss chokes with remembrance. Her sister is dead. The Masons? They must be dead. If not by the gunfire she heard, then by the flames that must have destroyed their home.

"You're awake," the man says, reaching forward to feel her forehead with his large hands. They're cool to the touch. It reminds her of her father – her dead father, _oh_ – and she can't help but lean into him. "What's your name, my dear?"

"K-Katniss," she says, choking a little using her voice.

He smiles kindly and turns to look over his shoulder at a small noise behind him. A boy sticks his head in and Katniss frowns. The boy looks just like the boy with the smile, just older. "Peet wants to know if she's awake yet," the boy says. He looks down at Katniss and grins. "Well, I'll let him know."

The boy leaves the room and the older man turns back toward her. "My boy, Peeta, he's more of a thinker than a doer. I was surprised to hear he ran into a burning building."

"Is he okay?"

The man shrugs. "He'll be fine in time," he says. "Now, Katniss, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news – "

"My family is dead," Katniss interrupts. "I know."

The man raises his eyebrows but says nothing more. As he goes to open his mouth once more, there's a loud crash on the other side of the door. It swings open and a boy limps in, pulling his arm out of his brother's hand. "Let me go," he hisses. When he turns, Katniss feels her heartbeat race.

The boy with the smile.

"Are you okay?" he asks, coming to sit on the side of her bed. Katniss can see that his leg is bandaged, probably badly burned from the fire at the Masons' home. "I was scared you were dead when you passed out under the blanket."

"She's fine, son," the older man says. "You – "

"I'm fine," the boy says. He smiles. "I'm Peeta."

"Katniss."

* * *

She's supposed to go live at the community home, but Mr. Mellark won't allow the Peacekeepers to take her. Katniss thinks this might have more to do with Peeta's wants at first, but after a few days she comes to realize that Mr. and Mrs. Mellark are both more than pleased to have her.

"My mom always wanted a daughter," Peeta tells her one day on their way to school. "I think if Dad knew she'd get nice the minute she had someone to dress up he'd of gone down to the community home years ago."

The Mellarks work at the paper mill. Peeta's father is one of the supervisors and the lifestyle is so different from what she's used to back at the Camp. None of them have to take out tesserae. They go to school, just like Liesl said, and learn to read and write. Peeta helps her out and she's a quick learner.

She wants to thank him for saving her life, but he won't accept it. He tells her that anyone would have done it. That it was the right thing to do. Katniss frowns and wants to ask how he even knew she was in there but doesn't.

She really likes Peeta. He's her best friend. He might be more if she allowed it.

Which is why it's that much more devastating when they're both reaped for the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games.

Johanna ignores her for most of the time they have to train and pawns her off on Blight to work on interview strategies. Katniss doesn't blame her. It must be hard for Johanna to look at her, knowing that she's the only one who got out alive from Camp 5. So, it completely surprises her when Johanna comes to lead her to the hovercraft that will take her to the arena. Katniss wraps her arms around Peeta, hugging him fiercely, knowing that the next time she'll see him is on a metal plate. He kisses her cheek and tells her that he has a plan.

The walk to the boarding station is silent. Johanna stops her just before the platform and fixes the bottom of her braid, giving it a small tug.

"Make him pay for it, okay?"

Katniss nods.

* * *

_The lullaby is a translation I found online of the Icelandic _Bí, Bí Og Blaka.

_The names of the Mason children all come from the von Trapp family and _The Sound of Music _film. Johanna is the real name of the sixth von Trapp (Marta in the film), while Friedrich, Kurt, and Liesl were the movie names of the first, fourth, and second von Trapp. I liked the parallel between _The Sound of Music_ and the Mason family, in that they're both being hunted by an oppressive regime, the von Trapps by the Nazis and the Masons by the Capitol, after they there is defiance against the regime (Captain von Trapp being anti-Nazi and Johanna opposing Snow by not giving herself up to be prostituted). _

_They live in Logging Camp 5 because 5 and 7 added together make 12._

_True story: my dad once worked at a paper mill. It stunk and the whole city where the mill was smelled like rotten eggs all the time. I based Seven's mill on the mill my dad worked at._

_Also, I recently got a tumblr so if you guys are into that you can follow me. My username is the same and I'll post a link in my ff profile._

_Thanks for reading!_


	8. Part VIII: District Eight

Part VIII

* * *

"If I went to work in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a union."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

* * *

_District Eight_

* * *

The work is tiring. The temperature inside the Asch Building is always much too high and all the workers sweat cups-full through their pores, even in the dead of winter. The Peacekeepers guard the doors, guns at the ready, making sure the workers stay at their stations.

Katniss Everdeen wipes her forehead on the apron in front of her dress and smacks her dry lips together. It's August. The Games have come and gone, with it going her fourth reaping, and now she is gearing up for a year working on creating shirts for women around the districts on a sewing machine.

Beside her, Peeta Mellark sticks himself with a needle again and she starts to giggle. He looks up and upon seeing that it's her laughing – and at him no less – he sticks his tongue out. It doesn't take long for the two to be caught and a Peacekeeper strides over, whacking Peeta in the arm with the butt of his gun.

"Get back to work," the Peacekeeper grunts, sending a warning glance at Katniss before heading back to his post.

"One of these days, we should just leave," Peeta says on their walk home. Prim skips ahead of them, her arms dancing toward the sky as if she has her entire life ahead of her. Katniss wishes she felt like that, like she used to when she left work, but four years in the factory has left her bitter and cool rather than optimistic. There is no future in Panem, no matter what anyone thinks.

"Oh yeah," Katniss says, raising her eyebrows and challenging him. "And where would we go?"

Peeta shrugs. "Leaven said the other day that he heard a rumor from a girl that Thirteen's still out there somewhere."

She's heard the rumor too. When she told her parents, her mother just rolled her eyes and told her not to believe in stories.

"Even if there is a District Thirteen," Katniss scoffs as she stops outside her house. "And, I'm not saying there is, but if there were, we would die in the woods getting there."

"Maybe," Peeta says. "But what does it matter? We're going to die here, anyway."

Katniss leans against the fence around her house and looks up at him with furrowed brows. "What's so special about Thirteen anyway," she says. "They've never come to save us if they are out there. Why would you want to go?"

Peeta reaches a hand to his neck and kicks some dirt up with his shoes. "I dunno," he mumbles. "I'm just tired of being owned, I guess."

* * *

They go to school until their first reaping. There they learn the basic skills of how to succeed as a textile factory worker, and the history of the Great Nation of Panem, and then they're cut loose from any formal education. She doesn't know how it works in the other districts, but Katniss has to believe that it's better than what they deal with in Eight.

She's seen people lynched in the reaping square for not working fast enough. She's seen whippings for men and women who utter one word to a Peacekeeper without being asked to speak. The district is run like a military dictatorship because of its rebellious tendencies.

Katniss would like nothing more than to run away, but she knows that it isn't a practical option – no matter what Peeta and his romantic ideas of escape and adventure say to convince her. If she runs out to the woods, she'd die there and never make it to Thirteen before a bear, or the Capitol, attacked her. At least in Eight, if she puts her nose down and minds her own business, she can help her family and stay alive – baring the results of the reaping.

Her father is rebellious. Her mother wants nothing to do with it. She's been woken up in the night by many fights, usually fights where her mother tries to tell her father not to be a revolutionary that gets himself beheaded in the square. Those nights, her father tends to sleep on the floor in the living area their shack provides.

Katniss knows that she and her mother are the overwhelming minority in their district. Most are like her father and want nothing more than to be apart of a plan to take down the Capitol.

And, apparently, that group now includes her best friend Peeta Mellark, a thought that terrifies her to no end.

The Peacekeepers take no mercy on them. She's seen kids younger than Prim flogged in the streets for repeating words they overheard their older siblings saying. Words they don't even understand. Even her conversation about the possibility of Thirteen the other day had been risky and had they not already crossed into the residential area of the district, where the Peacekeepers rarely patrol, she probably would have told him to shut up.

She doesn't like how she's forced to live, but she can't afford to think revolutionary thoughts.

* * *

It starts with a pamphlet.

Rye Mellark and his friends go into the school after hours and steal a few reams of paper and write messages of rebellion on them. The Mellark boys hand them out at the factory and Peeta just shrugs when he gives it to her.

"I know you won't like it," Peeta says. "But at least look at it. I think it's a good idea."

She does look at it, during her small lunch respite she's allowed. It basically gives the theory of the broadcasting about Thirteen, how the bird is a dead give away that the footage is old, and it encourages the kids of the Asch Building to help them plan a rebellion. The date is set for tomorrow and any kid wanting to be involved needs to stop work at ten o'clock. Kids who don't want to be involved should stay home sick; there are instructions on the best ways to fool one of the district healers on their _ill _health written on the back.

The fifteen-year-old bites her lip and looks around. It seems like everyone in the room is talking about it in hushed tones, using code words and hand gestures. The Peacekeepers, she sees, are none the wiser to what is going on right under their noses. With a glance toward Peeta, she goes back to work and keeps her head down. On the walk home, Prim skips ahead of them like usual, but Katniss doesn't speak.

The next morning, she wakes up early to put a pan of water on the fire to heat up. She takes a cloth and drenches it in the liquid, keeping it on her forehead until her mother wakes up.

"You are warm," her mother says. She tucks Katniss in and turns to her husband, whispering in hushed tones. Katniss knows her parents are worried – fever in the district is never a good sign – but she knows she'll be fine in the morning.

She doesn't want to be a revolutionary. She just wants to survive. Survive the reaping. Then work under the radar, maybe marry Peeta since she'll be expected to marry even though she doesn't want to and he would be the logical choice, and not have any children. She thinks about this as she drifts off to sleep.

* * *

The alarm blaring wakes her up.

Without thinking, she rolls out of bed and runs out of the house still in her pajamas – which are nothing more than an old pair of clothes that Peeta and his two brothers no longer fit in. Both her parents are gone – her father to work in the Brown Building, her mother probably dealing with kids like herself that didn't want to strike.

The sky is full of smoke and Katniss runs toward it. In the center of the district, the Asch Building is up in flames, kids sticking their heads out the windows of the top floors, some jumping and landing with sickening crashes on the ground. In the square, she sees a few Peacekeepers dragging a couple kids kicking and screaming to the whipping posts.

The only thing she can think about is Prim. Peeta. They were both in the Asch Building this morning, as much as she had tried to convince them both to fake sick, they wouldn't do it. Maybe they got out.

"Stop it!"

She pushes through the crowd forming around the whipping posts. Rye and Leaven Mellark have their hands wrapped to the post over their heads, their eyes downcast. Katniss watches the Peacekeeper bring up his whip and watches their faces, even though she can barely see through the crowd. But, when the whip comes down, neither mewls in pain the way the whipped usually do. Leaven screams out, but Rye makes the most noise.

"No, it's my fault. Do me instead!" he volunteers. "No, please!"

Leaven stares wide-eyed beside him, not uttering a single word.

Katniss pushes through the crowd further. She makes it to the front just as the whip makes contact with the bare flesh of Peeta's back.

"Peeta!" she screams, running forward.

His skin is slick with blood, brutally mangled so it no longer even resembles a human back. He's lost consciousness, his eyes closed, his breathing slow and shallow. She's so consumed by her vision she barely feels the whip on her cheek or her father lifting her up and away.

She does hear the crack of the whip. Again. And again. And again.

* * *

Children who are reaped come home to District Eight in white Capitol coffins that they bury along the edge of the fence. The one reprieve a citizen of Eight can receive is a week's paid leave when their child is reaped and killed in the arena.

The district returns to work, although the young kids are forced to work outside or in the already overcrowded Brown Building. The Asch Building remains in ashes, a reminder to the residents of the price paid for rebelling.

On Sunday, they have a mass funeral for all the children; some of them have bodies that were never recovered from the Asch ashes. There are a few bones that wouldn't burn that they place in a wicker coffin. Katniss's stomach rumbles unpleasantly in her stomach as they group around the plots. Almost everyone in the district has come to pay their respects, so many that not everyone can see the proceedings. But they're not there to see it. They're there to pay their respects to one hundred and forty-six little children who lost their lives.

The Peacekeepers barricaded the children into the building and then some on the outside set the place aflame. Four Peacekeepers died when Asch burned to the ground and that's the only justice they can find in the situation. And even then it's not enough.

Prim wraps her arms around Katniss's waist, but Katniss doesn't move. There are more funerals she'll have to attend later that day.

Mayor Paylor hands each of the families a small token, a token of gratitude for their children's efforts. She hands an actual medal of valor to Mr. Mellark. He's shaking with sobs at the very front. Her mother went over to offer a shoulder to cry on. He has now lost nearly everything. His wife in childbirth. His oldest son is currently on her kitchen table fighting pain from the whipping wounds. His middle is dying at her friend Bonnie's house, whose mother is one of the other healers.

Peeta saved Prim. He saw what the Peacekeepers were doing and lifted the tiny girl into his arms and bolted. Once he escaped, he let her down as the Peacekeepers grabbed him. He shouted for Prim to run and she did (her father later found her crying in a bush at the district boundaries), but the Peacekeepers took Peeta to the whipping post.

It wasn't because he necessarily did anything more wrong than any of the other kids. He was their example. They whipped him in front of his two brothers who started the whole thing and then they turned to Rye and Leaven, beating them just enough so they would still live.

Live with the guilt that they had killed their little brother.

Rye will live. Her mother is already sure of it. Leaven's teetering, infection spreading through his body.

She had never wanted to be a revolutionary before, but seeing Peeta's coffin makes something inside of her snap.

* * *

It's true, she realizes. You don't realize what you have until it's gone.

Peeta was her light and she ruined that with her fear. She curls into herself, her stomach aching from grief. She sees his back in her nightmares and, more than once, her mother has had to calm her in the middle of the night. Her father has taken her outside to the meadow along the fence's edge to rock her back and forth while she wails.

Prim blames herself, even though everyone knows it wouldn't have mattered. The Peacekeepers were using Peeta for Rye and Leaven. It had nothing to do with Prim. Her mother calls it survivor's guilt and sweet Prim no longer skips in the street. She can no longer look Mr. Mellark in the eye.

President Snow addresses their district after the bodies are buried. He tells them about what great a tragedy it is, that so many children had to be sacrificed to show the district what is really important. Work. Labor. Dedication to the Capitol.

It makes Katniss sick.

* * *

Delly Cartwright, a pudgy girl from District Twelve, wins the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games, after her district partner – some boy named Thom – eats nightlock to send her home. The girl didn't kill a single soul, not a human nor an animal nor even a fly. It gives Eight hope. She didn't play by the rules.

Mayor Paylor calls a secret, underground meeting that Katniss's father says she can go to if she desires. She goes, for Peeta more than herself. In the basement of the mayor's house there is barely room to breathe, but it doesn't matter.

They have just heard the announcement of the Third Quarter Quell. The tributes will be reaped from an existing pool of victors – something that could not have been done any other year since District Twelve has just received its first female victor.

"There will be a rebellion," Paylor announces to the crowd. They cheer her on as she continues. "There will be reform! There _will_ be a world where we can protect our children. We will not let them die in vain and we will fight until the Capitol no longer holds the power over our heads and President Snow is destroyed!"

Katniss Everdeen never wanted to be a revolutionary. All she ever wanted to do was survive. But the more Paylor talks, the more she realizes that there is a better world in the future, a place where there are no factories that turn children into slaves, where Peacekeepers can't lock the doors and burn a hundred little bodies. A world where she wouldn't have been afraid to have a child and that child, a boy with blond curls and gray eyes, would have been safe from harm, wobbling in the meadow on his new legs toward his father's outstretched arms.

She'll fight. She'll fight for Peeta. There will be change, the change he wanted. She'll make sure, when the rebellion comes, that he didn't die in vain.

* * *

_I'm sorry about the irregular updating. I know that I usually update every Friday, but real life got in the way last week. It was mostly because I was in the midst of finals, but also there was a part of me that – because of this chapter's content – didn't want to post this after learning about the school shooting last week in Newtown, Connecticut. I felt that this update needed to wait, out of respect for that, considering the major event that conspires in District Eight to give Katniss her change of heart. _

_As for the content, here's my explanation. I imagine the Mellarks as followers in that they do what the majority do. In Twelve, that's put your nose to the grind and work silently. In Eight, it's rebellion. That's why the Mellarks are very involved. As for Katniss, I wanted to play up her 'unlikely rebel/hero' status. She never wants to be the rebellion leader in the books, just as she doesn't here. I've always seen Peeta as more rebellious than Katniss. He says words that provide sparks: "She came here with me" and "If it weren't for the baby" and "You in Thirteen...dead by morning"; he paints pictures of the arena and uses them as his talent; he doesn't play by the rules – he joins the careers to protect Katniss, he tells her to kill him, he volunteers for Haymitch. I think Peeta knows exactly what he's doing by protecting her (stoking the fire for the rebellion) and Katniss, our unreliable narrator through the series, doesn't give him enough credit._

_The Asch Building is where the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire happened in Manhattan on March 25, 1911. The locking of the children inside the textile building is an allusion to this event, where the factory owners locked the doors so the women wouldn't take unauthorized breaks and when a fire broke out they were unable to escape. One hundred and forty-six garment workers, ages 43 to 14, were killed. The Asch Building was renamed to the Brown Building in 1929. This is where I took the names of the buildings and the number of children thought to be dead._

_Also, _important_, I've gotten a few PMs about possible bonus chapters – District Thirteen and the Capitol. Originally, this story was going to follow them through the districts (One through Eleven, since Thirteen is basically its own little country, the Capitol isn't a district, and we obviously see them in Twelve), but if you would like to see those, I could have them be bonus parts, labeled as such. I'll listen to my readers for this. Tell me in a review, PM, or on tumblr (which is the same username, Dracoisalooker76). I have a link to my tumblr on my profile._

_Thanks for reading and not losing faith when the updates didn't come. You are all amazing! _


	9. Part IX: District Nine

Part IX

* * *

"The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve."

Buddha

* * *

_District Nine_

* * *

They aren't special and they like it that way. They produce grain for the districts and specialty bread products for the Capitol. They pride themselves on their ability to put their nose to the grind and work. They have never needed Peacekeeper reinforcements brought in nor have they ever been close to having a rebellion. They're tributes always die in the first few days. No one _ever_ thinks of Nine and that's just fine.

Better than fine, really.

* * *

The day Primrose Everdeen is born, her older sister runs into the cornfields. The little dark-haired child has just turned four and, despite her father's stories about how having a baby will be fun, she can't stop the tears from flowing. She is Daddy's Little Duck and yet when she showed them the picture she drew while she was being babysat at the bakery, neither cared to look at it. Momma just held the blonde babe to her breast and Daddy patted her head and said, "Beautiful, Katniss," without even taking his eyes away from the quiet bundle.

So, Katniss Everdeen stuffs her backpack with her cloth doll Momma made, the old blanket she's had since birth, and a clean pair of clothes. She's running away.

Only, she can't run without Peeta.

She puts her bag on her back and walks through the square with her head down. Once she's outside of the bakery, she walks into the front, the bell jingling with her entrance. Peeta and his brothers are in the same places they were when she left. The oldest, Rye, is sitting behind the register, his chin in his hand. Leaven, the middle, is staring out the window at his friends from school as they play a game of kickball in the street. Peeta, the baby and her best friend, is on the floor, stretched out on his belly with his set of crayons and the sheets of paper his papa purchased for his birthday. Katniss is still surprised that he's managed to keep from using them all up. If it had been her, the papers would all be used two days after her birthday, let alone the two months it's been since his.

Rye looks up and, when he realizes it isn't a paying customer, goes back to counting floor tiles. Peeta looks up from his drawing and smiles as she crouches down in front of him, her feet flat to the ground, her bottom nearly touching her heels.

"What're you doin' here?" he asks. "Didn't your momma 'ave the baby yet?"

Katniss nods and pats the strap of her backpack. "I don' like 'er. Wanna come play?"

He looks up at his oldest brother. "Rye!" he whines.

Rye lifts his head up. Katniss can hear him muttering, but she doesn't understand what the eight-year-old is saying. Big kid stuff probably.

"_What_, you baby?" he hisses.

Peeta ignores the insult. "Can I go play?"

Rye turns to the doorway Katniss knows Mr. Mellark is behind before sighing. "Fine," he says. "But, be back before dark or Dad'll kill me." Peeta leaps into the air and Rye rolls his eyes. "And pick up the crayons! I don't want no one stepping on 'em."

Katniss watches as Peeta quickly takes his small handful of crayons and stuffs them into the pocket of his pants. Once he's grabbed his paper and crayons, Katniss takes his hand and pulls him out of the bakery. She looks up at the sky, realizing the sun will set soon, and she wants to get to the edge of the cornfield by dark. She doesn't let go of Peeta's hand until they're out of town and walking toward the long stretches of field.

"Where we goin'?" Peeta asks.

She turns to him. They're about the same height, but his legs are longer than hers so she still has to hurry to keep up with his strides sometimes. Today is no exception. She yanks his hand to slow him down and they fall into steady pace as they approach the fields, which are empty as usual on Sundays.

Katniss doesn't answer. She knows that it's best to not tell Peeta her plan. He usually ruins their plans by pointing out flaws and she doesn't want him to ruin this one. She's _not_ going home. Not when that baby is stealing her Momma and Daddy.

"Why're we 'ere?"

Still she doesn't answer. She pulls him through the stalks, disappearing in the rows of plants. Once the sun starts to go down, she stops and sits, pulling him down with her. It's barely half a mile in, not even close to the outer edge of the fields like she wanted. "We're livin' 'ere."

"Why?" he asks.

Katniss glares at him. "You not wanna live wit me?"

Peeta shakes his head adamantly. "Not true," he says. "But..." He looks around as the shadows begin to cover the dirt around them, the moon and stars providing the only light. "We can't live together. Only married people do that," he says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

She hadn't thought about that. Was that a rule of the district? They didn't have many rules. Nine was fairly laidback. The Peacekeepers even played ball with the kids in the street! But, she didn't know much about rules on living together – she'd never had to think about it before – and figured that Peeta was probably right.

She crawls across the dirt on her hands and knees, dirtying her palms and tearing a hole in her stockings, so she can press her lips to his lightly like she'd seen her Momma and Daddy do sometimes. She'd gone to her uncle's wedding and that's what he and his wife had done down at the Justice Building. They said a bunch of words (she and Peeta had just _had_ a conversation) and then they kissed (which she took care of) and they were married.

"There," she says, plopping herself unceremoniously in his lap so she can rest her head on his shoulder. "Now we can live 'ere."

* * *

Peeta Mellark plays with the end of Katniss's braid while she rests on his chest. They're in the schoolyard, waiting for the lower school to release the students so they can collect Prim and walk her to the bakery. While Katniss's steady breathing hits his shirt, he eyes the clouds and fools with the braid, knowing that she'll wake up complaining that he's ruined it.

It's hard to believe that Prim turns twelve today.

He chuckles thinking that exactly twelve years ago he was attempting to run away from the district with Katniss Everdeen because she hated her sister. The thought seems so ridiculous now. There are no two sisters closer than Katniss and Prim in Nine (and, if he were being completely honest, anywhere else). He and Katniss were found that night sleeping in the stalks by a search party and had gotten into their fair share of trouble. But they were four and after a few days everyone was talking about how cute it was rather than the danger.

They remained 'married' for a little over a year after that night, right up until they went to kindergarten and learned about cooties. The fake-marriage ended there. It wasn't until recently that they've found each other physically again and it's all as innocent as it was back then. A kiss on the cheek at the bakery. A hug in the school hallway. Holding hands while they walk. He's not entirely sure what to make of it. He knows he's in love with Katniss – he stopped denying it years ago. Katniss, on the other hand, has always avoided things that aren't cut and dry. Trading their friendship for a relationship would be one of the things she'd run from.

"She's really passed out, isn't she?"

Peeta looks away from the clouds and finds Prim crouched beside him. She grins and nods down at Katniss, who is emitting quiet snores from her mouth. He's afraid she's going to start drooling on him.

"She was up all night working on that speech," Prim says softly, reaching over to pat her sister's head. Katniss barely stirs. "I hope she didn't stutter this time. She didn't, did she?"

He raises an eyebrow in confusion for a split second before he realizes that the _speech_ was really Prim's card. He's in every one of Katniss's classes and there were no speeches given in any of them – and, if there had been, he would have known because she would have been worrying about it for weeks. He had told Katniss that he would make the card – he doesn't like to brag, but his (anyone's) drawing skills are better than Katniss's – but she was adamant that she wanted to make the card since he was in charge of the cupcake.

"Nope, she did perfect," he lies. "Come on, let's head out."

He shifts slightly and carefully picks Katniss up, carrying her bridal style across the grass. Prim must realize this just as he has because she's grinning like a fool. The littlest Everdeen has made her opinion on her hopes of a future Mellark-Everdeen union clear to just about everyone besides Katniss. Her sister still thinks Prim has a crush on one of the Mellark boys herself.

District Nine isn't perfect, but he can't imagine living anywhere else. It's a fairly large district, but for the most part everyone gets along just fine. Since almost everyone works in the fields, even the families who own the shops, there isn't a whole lot of segregation. They take care of each other when they're hungry or sick. They do as they're told in the fields. They've figured out exactly what to do as to _not _get the Capitol involved.

And, from what Peeta's heard, the other districts aren't as lucky as Nine. Rye's friend Graham was the most recent person from Nine to win the Games – the first in over a decade – and what he told them after the Victory Tour was enough for all the kids in Nine to decide that this life was better than life in some of the other districts, where there are barbs on the fences and Peacekeepers actually carry their guns (let alone shoot them). The only real dangers in Nine are the reaping and morphing moles from spending days in the hot sun of the fields. In exchange for their cooperation, they get a bigger allowance for their work than the other districts and their mayor tells them this as a way to keep everyone focused.

Nine will never start a rebellion. And that's fine.

Katniss wiggles in his arms and he knows she's awake. He sets her down on the ground and she quickly climbs up his back like a tree, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck so he can carry her.

"I never told you that you could have a piggyback ride," he teases.

"Like you can deny me anything."

Prim giggles wildly. Peeta's fairly sure that Prim would forget her own birthday if he and Katniss told their families they were getting married. It isn't as if the entire district isn't expecting it anyway. Katniss is just oblivious.

_But that's nothing new_, he thinks. He snorts to himself and Katniss lets go of his shoulder with one hand to knock on his head with her knuckles. "You okay in there?" she asks.

He smiles and puts each of his arms under one of her legs, shifting her to a more comfortable position as they walk toward the bakery. Prim dances in front of them, skipping across the gravel and spinning in her dress, an old one that used to belong to Katniss.

That night their parents share stories while they reminisce and bemoan the fact that their children don't stop growing. Prim sits on his father's knee as Mr. Mellark recalls the tale of the cornfields. Katniss blushes the color of strawberries when her father adds into the story, telling Prim, "And your sister would not move. She kept saying, _we're livin' together like married people!_"

Sensing her discomfort, Peeta tugs Katniss out the door and into the cool starlit night. He wraps his arms around her shoulders while they look at the moon full in the sky.

"I think about that all the time."

The words leave his mouth before he even has a chance to stop them. It is almost as if his brain has lapsed, his heart taking over, hijacking it so he no longer has any concept of fear or rejection. Katniss spins in his embrace so she can look at him, her eyes wide and he thinks he's said the wrong thing.

She rises slowly, almost as if she's giving him the chance to back away, before she presses her lips to his. His heart threatens to pound right through his chest cavity. "What was that?" he whispers. This has to be real. She can't tease him like this. It will crush him.

"I wanted to know if it felt the same," she says. "I thought it was kind of gross when we were four."

He lets out a slow breath. "And now?"

"It," she says, smiling shyly and looking down at her shoes, "made me want another."

* * *

It's not unusual in any district for eighteen-year-olds free from future reapings to descend upon the Justice Building as soon as the train leaves the station with two tributes inside. This is not the case in Nine. They take their time and do things right. After the reaping of the Seventy-Sixth Hunger Games, the Justice Building remains empty.

That night, two adults chase each other through the cornfields. His legs are longer, just as always, and so the match is uneven. Peeta's arms wrap around Katniss's waist, spinning her around and she squeals.

They collapse on the ground in a heap of hormones, the air still around their shuffling forms. The delicate braids her mother crafted that morning unwind around his fingers. The buttons of Rye's old shirt leave their holes at her touch. Their mouths work in tandem as the hot July air encases them into one being.

After, when Peeta lifts his head to look into her eyes, he brushes his knuckles against her flushed cheek. "Marry me," he says. There is no pomp and circumstance. It's cut and dry, just as he knows she appreciates.

She smirks and runs a hand through his damp blond curls. "We already are married."

"No," he says, even though his lips upturn. "For real."

"For real," she says back. "Okay."

Things will change. In two years, her sixteen-year-old sister will be reaped and there will be nothing that Katniss can do to save her. Primrose will go to represent Nine and her gentle nature, which Katniss is so sure will do her sister in, saves her life. She will find herself at the end with a handful of berries and a handsome dark-haired boy from Twelve, whose token is a gold mockingjay pin he gives to Prim in a cave after she heals him. He tells her stories of the mayor's daughter who ran to his coal-mining brother with nothing but a pin still to her name. She tells him stories of children in cornfields. He knows the berries from beyond the fence and she falls so hard for him that she becomes willing to break her sister's heart to stay with him always. Peacekeepers will descend upon Nine the day the Games end with two victors instead of one.

There will be war. Bombs will fall. Lives will be lost. Clouds will leak blood instead of rain and little children who know nothing of strife will play in meadows that are actually graveyards.

But right now, right in this moment, there is a boy and a girl clinging to each other in the moonlight because, right now, everything is fine.

* * *

_Sorry this wasn't posted yesterday. Real life got in the way. But anyways._

_I know it's kind of a stretch to have Nine as this almost pseudo-utopia district, however we don't much of anything about it. So, I figured I'd show the difference between two places that are seemingly ignored by the Capitol – Nine and Twelve. If my memory serves correct, Katniss says something along the lines of: the Capitol leaves Twelve alone because they don't do anything. I don't think that's true at all. Twelve's only living victor was Haymitch, who won by showing them up. Twelve, in my own personal headcanon, was _always_ on Snow's mind. It may not have shown to Katniss, but I think he knew there was more to Twelve than met the eye._

_Now, bring in my headcanon Nine. They have victors who are nothing special. They're not really an outlying district, nor are they a higher up district. They're just in the middle. They don't want to cause trouble. I think Snow would play this up, possibly turning a blind eye to the better conditions here if it meant he was safe from worrying about them. Thus, we have a happy Nine, where Katniss, Peeta, and Prim grow up without much to worry about – and Katniss isn't quite so guarded. _

_Thanks for reading! _


	10. Part X: District Ten

Part X

* * *

"Life on the farm is a school of patience; you can't hurry the crops or make an ox in two days."

Henri Fournier Alain

* * *

_District Ten_

* * *

They raise both children and cows, and both are sent to the slaughter. Parents in Ten have come to the conclusion that it is easier to treat their children like the cows they work with. Birth them. Name them. Raise them. Do all of this with the expectation that their names will fall off the heavily painted lips of their district escort. They consider themselves lucky if their child outlives a calf born in the same season.

* * *

Peeta Mellark, with his wide blue eyes, witnesses his first calving when he is five-years-old. His father heads one of the larger dairy farms, which employs nearly a hundred men. While his father is never the one to get his hands dirty in the actual process of breeding, he travels the farm to ensure the job is being done to fill the quota. Substandard production of milk will result in a Peacekeeper visit. After that, reprimands result in physical punishment, public humiliation in the square, or – if serious enough – even death.

But, at five, Peeta Mellark doesn't think about that. At five, he reaches for his father's hand and points at the newborn calf, being handled by one of his father's best workers. The calf is slick with fluid and the handler tickles her nose with a clean piece of straw so the newborn will begin to breathe. Thirty seconds later, the dark-haired farmhand nods at Mr. Mellark and carries the calf to a clean area of the birthing stall, the mother cow following.

"That's another heifer," the handler says. "You don't have too many bulls this season."

Mr. Mellark nods. "That's perfectly fine." Then he kneels down to his son's level. Peeta's eyes are still trained on the tiny calf, watching dutifully as the mother begins to clean her baby. "What do you think, Peeta?"

He glances up at his father and the worker. "How did the baby get in the momma cow?"

The two men laugh and Peeta looks down at his feet. His father pats his head. "Give that question a few more years," his father laughs. "Do you want to name her?"

"The baby?" Peeta asks. "What do I name it?"

"Anything you want."

Peeta thinks about it for a long moment. The only girl names he knows are his mother's – and he is sure that his mother would _not_ want a calf named after her – and his classmates in kindergarten. Would it be bad to name the baby after the girl with the braids? The one who can sing really well?

"Nissy," he says. "I want to call the cow Nissy."

His father and the handler raise an eyebrow at the name. Peeta just smiles, pleased with his choice and hoping that if Katniss Everdeen ever finds out about his calf she doesn't get mad.

* * *

A newborn calf gets three days with its mother before being separated from her. The relationship between a cow and her young intensifies over time, so it's best to remove the two before the bond can form properly. As Peeta grows, he wonders if maybe the parents of District Ten have taken a lesson from it themselves.

His mother is cold and unloving, but not necessarily cruel. For the most part, she ignores him and his brothers. When he was very young, he would reach out for her, open and close his tiny hands in hopes that she might pick him up. She never touched him though, nor his brothers. Papa will pat his head or sometimes his rump when he says, "Scoot along," but the Mellark parents are distant from their children.

He thinks that's why he's so intrigued by Katniss Everdeen.

Her papa works on another farm or maybe in the slaughterhouse (Peeta doesn't really know), but he does know that Katniss gets a kiss from him every morning before school and her mother holds her hand on the walk home, her baby sister held tight by her mother's other arm. He's seen it himself, right before his eyes, and he doesn't quite understand.

Even though his father tells him not to, he goes to visit Nissy in the calf hutch when he knows one of the farmhands is bottle-feeding her. He watches with interest and widens his eyes when the farmhand asks if he'd like to feed her. He giggles wildly while he holds the bottle out to his calf. He goes to visit her every day while she grows. It makes him feel important.

* * *

Nissy is thirteen-months-old when Papa tells him that the young cow is going to have a calf herself. Peeta is six and surprised at how quickly Nissy grew, but is excited nonetheless for another calf.

"When, Papa?"

"We'll get the baby in her and then nine months after that."

He is also six when he formally meets Katniss Everdeen for the first time.

They are partners for a project, although Peeta can't tell you anything about it. He can tell you that Katniss Everdeen is wearing her hair in two braids on either side of her head, tied at the bottom with two red ribbons. She is still in her red plaid dress that she wore the first day of school but it is clear she will outgrow it in the year. If asked, he'd say that he felt like someone punched him in the gut when she spoke to him and that he thought his heart would beat right out of his chest when she waved a hand in his face, annoyed, before rolling her eyes and muttering, "I'll do it myself."

Needless to say, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark do not start out on the right foot.

Eager to get in her good graces, Peeta blurts out the first thing he can think of before she walks away from him forever. "Do you want to see my cow?"

He covers his face with his hands and peeks through his fingers. Katniss stands staring at him, her eyes wide in what could be disgust or anger, he doesn't really know. She turns around without saying anything and Peeta is sure that it is the last time he is ever going to talk to Katniss Everdeen.

* * *

Nissy always seems to be having babies. She has one every year and the only thing Papa ever tells him is that she has babies so she'll produce milk. They live on a dairy farm. They need her to make milk. Papa also tells him not to go see her, but he goes anyway. He sits on the fencepost and pets her. She's gotten used to him over the years and just stands there while he tells her everything. She usually learns about his woes of Katniss Everdeen and, even though she can't give him advice, Peeta likes that he can talk over his problems. It helps him think.

No one else ever wants to listen.

His brothers are both older and look down on him as the baby. His mother ignores him. His father is busy. So that leaves the cow, which he realizes is a bit ridiculous at ten, but it's the only thing he's got.

Today he's worried. His brother turned eighteen, his other brother sixteen, which means they both have a large number of slips in the reaping bowl. Not nearly as many as children of farmhands but enough to make him worry. His parents don't seem to worry though, not as much as he does, and he tells this to Nissy.

"Don't you miss your babies?" he asks. Two of her babies are across the fields, but her two boys were sold to the slaughterhouse because they'd be more useful for meat, and her latest calf is still inside.

As usual, Nissy says nothing and Peeta runs into the house for dinner.

The following day brings the reaping and when neither of his brothers is chosen, he sees a change in Papa and Mother. They both embrace Rye, eighteen and free from the threat of slaughter, and Peeta lets his mouth drop. They talk with Rye the whole walk home – about how he'll inherit the farm one day, how Mother will make his favorite dinner, how Papa wants to show him the ropes tomorrow.

Leaven rolls his eyes and lifts Peeta up, throwing his brother on his back. "Come on, little guy. Time to go home."

* * *

Fate likes to play tricks on him. Katniss Everdeen is almost always his partner for projects and she can't stand him. She does the work herself, covering the papers with her arms, and when he tries to help she sneers at him to leave her alone. He comes to the conclusion that Katniss just doesn't know how to work with people. She doesn't have many friends and he thinks he could help.

So, he hopes it doesn't backfire when he walks to her house on a Saturday morning, without her knowledge, and knocks on the door. They have a project due Monday on calving and Peeta knows more about this than she could ever learn by spending time in the library. He hasn't spent eleven years on a farm for nothing.

The walk to where she lives is long and the houses get smaller and smaller as he goes. His family home isn't large by any means, but these homes are downright tiny. Papa has warned him never to leave the property without one of his brothers because it's dangerous in the farmhand residencies and they need Peeta for the farm, but Peeta doesn't see how it could be so bad.

It's not the first time he's wandered the trail to her house. He followed her and her sister home once just so he'd know where she lives on the off chance he had to do this one day. He knocks on her door and waits, tapping his foot on the ground.

She opens the door, sees him, and slams it in his face. He didn't make the walk for nothing though.

"Katniss!" he shouts as he bangs. "We have to work together!"

The door opens again and this time it's a tiny blonde girl. Her sister smiles and Peeta sees that she's missing her two front teeth. "Hi," she says.

"Hi, Katniss and I have a project to do together."

She nods and opens the door wider. Katniss watches with her eyes widen, her mouth dropped. She shakes her head and sits down at the table. "Fine," she says. "Sit down."

He knows that Katniss is surprised at how helpful he is today. Usually he can barely get two words out around her, but he is confident about the process of calving to the point where even sitting with Katniss Everdeen doesn't distract him. She writes down what he says, scribbling on paper and crossing things out that she'd written herself.

When they finish, she looks up sheepishly. "That's really good."

Peeta shrugs. "Now, if only the rest of our projects had to do with calves."

It makes her giggle and Peeta is confident that he's never heard a more beautiful sound. Primrose comes running, sliding on the floors in her dirty socks. "Calves?" she asks, eyes wide. "Do you have baby cows?"

Peeta nods and eyes Katniss. Her smile has dropped and she's looking at him with suspicion. He turns back to Prim. "Do you like cows?"

"I love all animals," Prim squeals.

"Would you like to see a calf? My cow just had her baby."

Katniss holds her hands up. "Wait, wait, wait!" she shouts. "No way! We can't go to your farm. Prim, go play with the goat."

"But I want to see the cow!"

That's when Peeta learns that the one thing Katniss can't do is deny her sister of anything. The three walk back through the gravel streets, watching as the houses get larger and larger. He brings them to the calf hutch and points out the calf that Nissy just bore. Nissy is already back out in the fields and Peeta is thankful that they turn the cows away from their young after three days – her name is the last thing he wants to explain to Katniss Everdeen right now.

Prim squeals with delight as she pets the baby. "Katniss, look! Katniss, look at me!"

"I can see," Katniss says. She turns to Peeta and sighs. "Thanks," she mutters quietly.

"It's not a big deal."

The look she gives him tells him that it is.

* * *

Peeta wanders out to the fields on his twelfth birthday because he's scared. This is the first year his name will be in and, despite the nightmare he had that night, neither of his parents came rushing to his aid. He's still shaking when he notices his father and Rye walking with clipboards in the early morning light. It's too early for the workers to be here and yet the farm is riddled with farmhands.

_Maybe one of the cows is calving_, he thinks as he runs to the barn. He's stopped, however, when he hears his name being called.

He turns to see Leaven chasing after him from the house, still in his pajamas, his feet barely stuffed into his work boots. "Peeta, come on," Leaven calls. "Go back to bed."

"I can't sleep," Peeta explains. "I'm going to go talk to Nissy."

Leaven's eyes widen and Peeta narrows his in suspicion. "Leaven...?"

"Leaven, get him out of here!"

Peeta turns to see Rye standing in the doorway to the barn. There is a large truck backing into the driveway and Peeta's seen it before. This is the truck that comes when his father has to send the cows to the slaughterhouse. Peeta tries to avoid this day and he would today too if he didn't feel so upset about his dream.

"I just want to go to Nissy's stall," he tells Leaven. "I'll stay away from the others."

Rye raises his hands in frustration and Leaven glares at him, pulling Peeta into his arms. Peeta doesn't know what's going on, but his body does. He starts to squirm in his brother's arms, but Leaven is eighteen and too strong for Peeta to overpower. He is dragged back into the house, up to his room, and tucked into his bunk.

"Why couldn't I go in?" he asks.

His brother lets out a breath and pats his cheek. They stare at each other for a few minutes before his brother shakes his head. "I'm not going to be the one that lies to you," he says. "Dad and Rye had to cull."

Leaven doesn't lie to him, but he doesn't spell it out either. Peeta doesn't realize until he tries to find her that Nissy was one of the cows taken off the farm. He runs out into the fields and hides in a bush until dark. It's not unusual for the children of Ten to become attached to animals like cows or goats or stray dogs and cats because it gives them an outlet for their love.

It's late when his brothers find Peeta in the bush. When they bring him inside, his parents don't even look up.

* * *

It's a bright July morning when their escort calls out for Katniss Everdeen. Peeta feels like the world is collapsing on top of him. He hasn't seen her since the project when he brought her and Prim to the farm. And now she's going to die. He can't breathe. He can't think. He just stands there, slack jawed at how fearless the twelve-year-old on stage looks even though he's sure she's shaking in her shoes.

When his name is called, he's not nearly as scared.

His brothers come to visit, but after they excuse themselves he's alone. He's grateful he even has brothers because some kids in Ten don't get any visitors. _Only children_, he thinks, _must be lonely in this room_.

Because his room is so quiet, he can hear Primrose's screams across the hall. He can hear Mrs. Everdeen crying. He wonders if love is all it's cracked up to be. At least his parents aren't sobbing for him. At least they can move on once he's gone.

That night on the train his door opens and he hears little feet padding across the floor. He cracks an eye to find Katniss standing beside his absurdly large bed in her nightgown, clutching a stuffed toy he'd seen their escort hand her earlier that night. Apparently, their mentor had said, they'd already gotten a sponsor because they were cute. Peeta, though, had seen their escort pull the toy from a closet.

"Can I sleep here?" Katniss asks. "I've never slept in a bed by myself before."

He slides over and Katniss buries herself under the covers, holding the teddy bear to her chest like a lifeline. They stare at each other, not saying a word, before Peeta gives her a tiny smile, the best he can do under the circumstances.

"Wanna work together?" he asks. "We're always together for projects at school. Why not here too?"

Katniss thinks for a moment and nods. "Together."

When he wakes up in the morning, Katniss's head is on his chest, the stuffed toy wedged between them. He takes a deep breath and looks out the window as the districts fly by. At least here he's not alone.

* * *

_Personally, my headcanon has Peeta's brothers closer to him in age that they are here (considering it's implied that Mr. Mellark and Mrs. Everdeen had something going on I'm assuming that they're around the same age and I think it's far-fetched for Peeta to have brothers so much older than him if Katniss was the Everdeen's oldest). Luckily, SC didn't give us any information on them (except that Katniss thought one of them was reaping age when she and Peeta were sixteen) so it's easy to mess with their ages without feeling like I'm cheating canon. _

_Author's Note from District Nine: Because I've been getting a lot of questions about last chapter – yes, the boy from Twelve is Rory. I left him unnamed for people who don't ship Prim and Rory (but, Prory is my personal Everthorne, so yeah, that was him in my mind)._

_Thanks for reading!_


	11. Part XI: District Eleven

Part XI

* * *

"The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings."

Masanobu Fukuoka, _The One-Straw Revolution_

* * *

_District Eleven_

* * *

The reaping is bad in every district. It is the worst in Eleven.

When children in Districts One through Ten, plus Twelve, wake up to a sense of dread and impending doom on a usually bright and cheerful day in July, the children of Eleven have already suffered a week of agony and fear. Just to get to the reaping itself, with an escort dressed to the nines shouting about how it is such a great honor to represent Eleven, the children undergo a process of elimination. The children those in the Capitol and the other districts view on the large television screens, shuffling nervously and hoping that their name is not written on the single slip of paper, are not even half of the children in the district.

Not even a quarter.

Eleven is the largest. It is split into quadrants – North, South, East, and West – and each has a certain number of villages, all housing tiny shacks where families spend their nights. They are the main food suppliers and they are out in the fields from sun up until sun down, and sometimes even after that. And, most importantly, it depends on where you live.

Those in the North Quadrant are less likely to be out passed dark. They send their children to school twice a week to train in other aspects of district life rather than sitting on top of high perches, looking out over orchards. They haven't had a victor come out of the North Quadrant since Seeder, but they haven't had many tributes either.

East and West are hard workers. They work the crops along the fences and many earn their deaths while trying to escape despite the razor wire at the top of the thirty-foot fence and metal plates beneath the ground; those who don't take to the fields until their skin wrinkles like leather and their moles begin to misshapen. Children from the North Quadrant trained to be healers come into the East and West, and the South as well, to offer their services.

The South Quadrant is out and about before the sun rises and still working when it sets. Their children do not attend school and they are among the worst treated and most exploited people in Panem. While all children in Eleven become accustomed to whippings by the time they reach reaping age, those in the South Quadrant villages are pulled from the womb watching them. A child here is just as terrified of being killed by a whip as they are being killed by a tribute.

Everything is strict in Eleven. There is no room for funny business, despite the ample stretches of land.

* * *

The mayor drives up the gravel road in his shiny car. He is flanked by three Peacekeepers and accompanied by his wife, who holds a small wooden box with NQ written on the top. This is his first stop of the day. It is Sunday, one week before the reaping.

He stands at the front of the meetinghouse, at his podium, and looks out amongst the group. The North Quadrant is the smallest of the four but the children still seem to overflow out of the room. They are arranged by village, from One in the front to Twelve in back, and he doesn't say much as he begins to pluck names out of the box.

There are about six hundred children within reaping age in the North Quadrant. The mayor requires each Quadrant to give ten percent of the children within reaping age. North gives sixty out of six hundred. The East and West will give one-seventy and one-ninety respectively. The South will give three-eighty. It rounds to a perfect eight hundred.

Roll call begins.

"Durum Hayward."

With each name, a child stands and walks out of the meetinghouse to a truck waiting to take them to the district center, where they will stay in an abandoned factory that has been converted in the most primitive sense to a makeshift remake center. Six trucks line up, taking ten a piece in their truck beds, driven by Peacekeepers to avoid any mishaps.

"Winnow Lewis."

"Emmer Goulding."

"Spelt Applegate."

"And, last, Primrose Everdeen."

Katniss Everdeen gasps audibly as Prim starts shaking in her lap. Katniss doesn't think. She reacts. Primrose is dutifully passed to Farro Hansen, the largest boy in their village, and takes her sister's place. There is no guarantee that Prim would even be reaped, but Katniss is not about to risk it. She leaves Prim, who has Farro's hand over her mouth so she can't scream, and steps into the line outside.

"Name," the Peacekeeper says when she makes it to the front.

"Katniss Everdeen for Primrose Everdeen."

The Peacekeeper raises an eyebrow, but crosses out Prim's name on the official tally and marks Katniss's. "Well, up you go."

She takes her place in the truck beside a boy with curly blond hair and broad shoulders. It's a bumpy road they travel and she nearly lands on him twice as the truck jerks and bounces along. She wants to say thank you or something for putting up with her, but her throat is dry and her lips are stuck together. At least fifty-eight kids will return to the North Quadrant. She hopes she's among them.

* * *

The little girl from the South Quadrant's name is Rue and it makes Peeta's stomach lurch and curl just looking at her. They've all been sized for their reaping clothes, all eight hundred of them, and are now allowed to mingle before they're fed.

Fattened up. Because, apparently, those in Eleven are too emaciated for television. Even the ten pounds added by the screen doesn't do them any good.

There are a few large and bulky boys. One from the South Quadrant, who is tall and brooding. A couple of brothers from the West. To be honest, Peeta actually thought it was normal to see a girl's ribs or for a boy to have overtly prominent facial bones. He's never seen anything else until coming here, where he sees Capitol consultants who are insistent upon which foods each of the eight hundred children need to eat for the next week.

He doesn't know what a calorie count is or a protein index, but the food is good and he isn't complaining. This may be the only time he is treated this well.

The kids from the Quadrants stay separated for the most part. His Quadrant, the North, sits huddled together, a small spot of pale and olive skinned children amongst the masses of darkened babes. Peeta has never seen anyone with such rich skin as little Rue's, and he finds himself drawn to watching her from across the complex. She floats around the South's massive huddle like a swift wind blowing through the summer scorch.

Of the sixty kids in his Quadrant huddle, he only knows three others. His village, One, never gives many potential tributes. They don't spend their time out in the fields – and if they did their skin would turn as red as a rose – and they train to do the work in the district center as stockers or processors, or work to produce luxury items afforded by Peacekeepers and the mayor's workers. His father makes the bread they supply to their Peacekeepers, but the pay is little and Peeta has more than the required five slips to his name.

There is no child in Eleven (not even little Primrose Everdeen) who has never taken tesserae.

Katniss Everdeen is curled in the corner of the room, her knees to her chest, her chin rested upon her legs, and looking out across the room just like him. She's from Village Twelve – that's what she said when they went around the group while waiting for the other Quadrants to arrive – and Peeta has been taken with her too. Unlike Rue, she does not float or saunter or feel like a refreshing breeze. She scowls and is more like a rock, heavy with burden and fear.

She volunteered for her sister. Peeta overheard someone say that. It impresses him. No one has ever done that to his knowledge.

They eat their meals, distributed to each child based on a specific dietary regimen. When he finishes his plate he's still hungry, but there are no seconds. The Capitol workers cannot have the children throwing the food back up.

That night, when they're all pretending to sleep on their cots, someone begins to whimper. No one moves or stirs, not wanting to get into trouble. Peeta hears two feet hit the ground near him and slap against the wooden floors, all the way to the South Quadrant's side. A few hushed words are exchanged and then he hears the most beautiful voice he's ever heard begin to sing.

_Hush-a-bye,_

_Don't you cry,_

_Go to sleep, little baby._

_When you wake_

_You shall have_

_All the pretty little horses._

_Blacks and bays,_

_Dapples and grays,_

_All the pretty little horses._

He finds himself humming quietly to himself as she sings. He doesn't know who it is, but he is certain he will never hear anything more beautiful.

_Way down yonder_

_In the meadow_

_Lies a poor little lamby._

_Bees and butterflies_

_A-peckin' on its eyes._

_Poor little thing is cryin', "Mammy."_

_Blacks and bays,_

_Dapples and grays,_

_All the pretty little horses._

That night, Katniss Everdeen sings seven hundred and ninety-nine children to sleep.

* * *

Rue shyly approaches Katniss the next morning after their morning meal and measurements. Katniss just smiles and pats the spot on the cot beside her. Most of the children find this curious and watch as the two form a fast friendship. They sing songs. Katniss teaches her the lullaby and, in response, Rue teaches her a song. They do this, back and forth, for a day before more little girls begin to join. They sit cross-legged on the ground and listen.

The little children are silent as they listen. The older children say that Katniss would be able to silence a mockingjay. Peeta watches from his cot as Katniss forms quite the following. She taps Rue's nose playfully. She learns the names of the twelve- and thirteen-year-olds that sit on the floor in front of her. She picks up a tiny twelve-year-old boy, who is smaller than Rue and whose skin is the color of charcoal, and sets him down in her lap.

When Friday rolls around, the reaping on Sunday, Peeta decides enough is enough. He stands from his cot and walks toward Katniss's. The rest of the North kids watch as he lifts Rue in the air, takes her spot, and replaces her on his lap.

His atrocious singing voice, which echoes over Katniss's, seems to be what it takes.

The little boys and girls on the floor can barely hold in their giggles. Katniss herself looks shocked for a moment before smiling at him. She wonders if he remembers her from the truck ride in. He wonders the same thing. One of the older West boys comes over, as do a group of older East girls. The brooding bulky boy from South even asks Rue why she didn't teach them 'Swing Low'.

Rue's eyes light up as she reaches for Katniss, patting her cheeks before looking directly at Peeta and singing the words. He follows her, messing up the lyrics more than he can count on his fingers. But, before long, all of the children are singing. From North, from South, from East and West.

_Swing low, sweet chariot_

_Coming for to carry me home,_

_Swing low, sweet chariot_

_Coming for to carry me home._

_I looked over Jordan, and what did I see _

_Coming for to carry me home? _

_A band of angels coming after me,_

_Coming for to carry me home._

* * *

All eight hundred children are dressed for the reaping. The clothes aren't new, but they are tailored to keep each child from looking too thin. They are taken to the square by age group – twelves, thirteens, fourteens.

Rue holds onto Katniss's hand until she is forced into line with the other twelve-year-olds. Katniss closes her eyes and rests her head on Peeta's shoulder. He kisses the top of her head but says nothing else. His heart pounds in his chest and his stomach finds refuge in his throat. Despite all the singing they've listened to and participated in during these last few days, today is not a good day.

"Sixteen-year-olds!"

The Peacekeepers march them to the square where they line up before a desk. The foreignness of the reaping process scares her, so Katniss holds onto Peeta's hand like a lifeline. He is her rock until they're pulled apart to have their fingers pricked.

"Next."

It stings but she holds back her wince as they press her finger to the paper. The machine reads out her name – _Everdeen, Katniss. 16 Y/O_ – before the woman tells her to move on. She turns briefly to see that Peeta is being pulled toward the boys' side and takes her spot in the crowd.

It takes well over an hour to bring in the sixteens, seveteens, and eighteens, but finally everyone is accounted for and standing in front of the Justice Building. Behind them are eight hundred families, all brought in on trains to the district center. All hoping that the names being read don't belong to their child, their brother, their sister.

The escort is wearing a lime green wig today as she taps the microphone. The previous victors all step out. Seeder and Chaff, the two mentors this year, sit at the front beside the mayor, a man who enforces every Capitol rule with the harshest punishments.

"Welcome, welcome!" the escort cheers. "Ladies first!"

Time goes by so painfully slow when Rue's name is called. It doesn't quicken with Thresh's addition on stage. The escort calls for a round of applause, but no one moves. By district rules, they are not allowed to show dissent so it surprises her when she hears one absolutely atrocious singing voice, so quiet she wonders if Rue and Thresh can hear on stage.

_When you wake_

_You shall have_

_All the pretty little horses._

It is chaos. Chaff lifts Rue and carries her into the Justice Building with his good arm, while one of the other victors push Thresh indoors. The Peacekeepers begin searching for the singer, guns raised now that the red blinking light of the cameras has shut off. The Peacekeepers stand guard, making the children stand in straight orderly rows until all the families have been sent back to their Quadrants on trains.

When they are allowed to break formation, Katniss pushes through the crowd to find Peeta. She slaps his face, demanding to know why he did it, and all he does is shrug in response and say it felt like the right thing to say.

They are split apart back in the North Quadrant, sent back to their respective villages, but it is not the last they see of each other. District Eleven erupts into a rebellious mob when Rue is slain in the arena. A tall handsome eighteen-year-old from Twelve, who took the tiny girl under his wing, buries her in a bed of posies. He gives her a funny salute the children all practice in the fields, holding their three middle fingers in the air not knowing exactly what it means but liking what it stands for. Gale Hawthorne ends up winning the Hunger Games and, when Thresh is gone, he is the tribute for which Eleven roots.

Katniss and Peeta meet again at the Victory Tour. There are thousands and thousands of people listening to the speeches. They are too far away to really be able to see much, but they see enough. They see the salute go up and a Peacekeeper shoot the man in the head.

Before she can even realize what is going on, Katniss feels Peeta pulling her through the crowds, away from the Peacekeepers and the frantic pace of rebellion. They hide under an abandoned porch as shots are fired and screams envelope the open fields around them. As they cling to each other – bone clanging against bone through seven thin layers of skin – they wait until the gunfire lessens. When it does, Peeta pulls something out of the front pocket of his overalls and hands it to her.

Katniss's eyes widen as she holds the pearl in her hands. "Where did you get this?"

"That escort that follows Hawthorne and Abernathy around," he grins. His face is so dirty it reminds her of Rue but she pushes that thought away. She's cried enough for Rue in the months since her reaping. This may be her only time with Peeta. "Well, her necklace broke and all the beads fell on the ground. I managed to get one."

He unclasps her hands and touches the shiny white bead with the tip of his finger. "The escort said during the games that pearls are made from coal."

Katniss furrows her brow. "Really?"

Peeta nods his head enthusiastically. "Imagine what Twelve must be like," he says, his eyes almost dreamlike. "With all that coal, they must have tons of pearls."

She doesn't want to burst his bubble but she thinks this must be some sort of hoax. Everyone knows that Twelve is the poorest district, even worse off than them. They only have two victors for a reason, she thinks. But maybe Peeta's right. There has to be something better out there, beyond the fences they can't physically escape from.

So, instead of saying anything, she closes her fingers around the pearl, desperately trying not to lose it.

* * *

_I know a lot of you were waiting for Eleven. I hope this didn't disappoint._

_Katniss's lullaby to Rue is _All the Pretty Little Horses_, the specific lyrics to the traditional American lullaby belonging to _Odetta_'s version of the song. I, however, listened to _Becky Jean Williams'_ version while writing it. The song Rue teaches is _Swing Low, Sweet Chariot_, an "American Negro spiritual" according to Wikipedia._

_Thank you for reading all the districts. It has been such a great ride. I have decided to do two bonus chapters – District Thirteen and the Capitol. Let me know if you have a preference on which one is posted first. I will do the same thing with those chapters as I have with these: post them for the next two weeks, one each Friday._

_Thanks again!_


	12. Bonus I: District Thirteen

Bonus I

* * *

She looked just like an angel

Flying down to me

But I was underground

Where the devil comes to feed

-The Swellers, _The Best I Ever Had_

* * *

_District Thirteen_

* * *

When the sickness hits it kills her mother along with six of the other doctors and many of their citizens. Katniss herself spends thirty-six days in quarantine before doctors dressed in suits designed more for nuclear war than anything else deem her disease-free and she is able to return to her father and baby sister.

Her father doesn't let go for nearly a half-hour when they meet again. He cries and nearly sings about how happy he is, squishing baby Prim in between them. She doesn't quite understand. She is a week from five and the process of being ill confused her. Where is Mother? Why is she still gone when I am back? Why did no one come visit me except those scary suited doctors?

But she doesn't have time to ask. President Coin has given them a new compartment.

She knows her father is high up in the military, if only because before Mother died she never really saw him. This new compartment, he tells her as they shuffle their few belongings into boxes, will be nice. It's on the family floor and there will be many more children than on the floor they're currently on. As they move, her father walks ahead with Soldier Boggs, a man she's met many times, and she is in charge of Primrose. She struggles a bit when Prim squirms, but her father doesn't seem to notice. Katniss doesn't really mind. She likes caring for her little sister.

After the move, her father leaves with Boggs and Katniss sets Prim down on her bed. The compartment is large and white. They aren't allowed much in terms of decorations, but her mother had always made their compartment seem homey in a way. She misses her mother.

Once Prim's breathing slows, Katniss curls up in the bed beside her.

* * *

The family in the compartment next to theirs has two sons. One is her age, one four years her elder. The father, Soldier Mellark, works in the kitchens making meals. Katniss can hear him introducing himself to her father one day and she sticks her head out of the compartment door. The man isn't tall like her father but he is twice as broad. His hair is curly and blond, the shade of Katniss's yellow crayon, and hidden behind his legs is a tiny boy with the same features.

Katniss meets the boy the following week when she starts school. His name is Peeta and they walk back to their compartments together. His mother and middle brother died from the sickness, just as hers did. Their bond forms quickly and by the time they both pass onto the next grade she considers Peeta Mellark her best friend.

* * *

"How much time do we have before family time?"

Katniss looks down at the schedule printed on her arm. "An hour."

Peeta grins and takes her hand, pulling her down a different hallway. She giggles fiercely. They are not supposed to run in the hallways, but at thirteen the two are in their rebellious stage. The hallways are empty, most children still in class and adults in their jobs. The two of them are ditching, playing a game of Allude the Soldier. It was Soldier Leeg sent to find them today and the older man always loses them.

People joke that Katniss Everdeen, the daughter of President Coin's trusted Soldier Everdeen, will set the underground district aflame. Her father is not pleased with this nonsense behavior – he tells her this often – but she is turning fourteen soon. The time to be a child is slowly ticking away.

Peeta turns fourteen tomorrow.

Katniss jumps on his back and he nearly falls over before catching himself. He grunts under the added weight and Katniss wraps her arms around his neck. "So, Soldier Mellark, are you ready for assignment tomorrow?"

Peeta adjusts her on his back, putting each of his arms under her knees. "I guess," he says. "Although, I'm not too sure how good I'll be at gun toting."

President Coin assigned Peeta to the military, just as most people in the district are assigned. Katniss heard her father talking to Soldier Mellark the other day about Peeta's assignment. His scores on his strategist exams impressed President Coin. She wants him in Command once he's finished with his basic training.

Peeta's father didn't seem too thrilled with the idea. Katniss knows him well enough to know the man is no soldier. A gentle giant, Prim had called him once. He had assumed that Peeta would join him and his older son Rye in the kitchens and had probably wanted that, keeping Peeta away from any potential action. But Katniss's father, on the other hand, had been excited enough for both of them. Sometimes she wonders if her father is as proud of her as he is of Peeta.

"I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Everdeen! Mellark!"

Katniss turns her head to see Soldier Leeg at the end of the hallway. "Run!" she says. Peeta sprints with them both through the hallways. They take cover in a closet, hidden in the darkness. Once they hear Soldier Leeg's footsteps carry down the hallway, she feels Peeta sit down. She sits with him, placing herself in his lap with her back to his chest.

"I'm going to miss this," he tells her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

* * *

Her assignment arrives May first. Just as she expected, she is assigned to the military in the role of sniper. Her father had been a sniper prior to his promotion to his current position. She doesn't mind this. It means that starting May ninth, the first day after her fourteenth birthday, she can walk to assignment with Peeta. They will both be headed to the military barracks.

The first day, when the man at the checkpoint inspects the schedule on her arm, she feels odd when he addresses her. "You're all set, Soldier Everdeen."

Everyone is addressed as Soldier after age fourteen, even those not assigned to the military, but it makes her shiver that only a select few people will ever call her Katniss again. Her father and Prim. The Mellarks. Boggs, when they are not in uniform.

She feels an elbow in her side and she looks up to find Peeta adjusting the sleeve of his uniform back over his schedule. "Come on," he says. "I'll show you around."

* * *

It's monotonous.

She follows the same schedule every day. She never thought she'd say she missed school, but she'd rather be reading history books. It's not the physical exertion that bothers her – she is small and quick so she always comes in first in footraces and not wanting to be weak around Peeta gives her a little adrenaline to help with her weight lifting. But it's always the same thing. Day after day after day. Month after month. Year after year.

It's not like there is any action she's ever going to face. Sometimes she wonders if Coin made everything up – the Capitol, the districts, the war.

They read about it in school. Prim is just starting to get into it now and, at sixteen, Katniss finds herself flipping through the books again while Prim is asleep and her father is still in Command for the night. She reads through the books, all freshly printed, and can't imagine it can possibly be real.

Her fingers glide across the face of a boy named Finnick Odair. The picture in the book looks real and she's never seen anyone who looked like him – all bronze-haired and tan with eyes so green she's certain they must be genetically altered. In the picture he is fourteen, but the article written says he's currently twenty-three and force into a process called mentoring, in which he tries to help children win the so-called Hunger Games (if all of it is real), and that President Snow is selling him to Capitol residents as a prostitute.

She flips another page and reads up on Johanna Mason, whose entire family and neighborhood were apparently killed in a house fire while she was on her Victory Tour. The page before hers highlights Annie Cresta, a beautiful girl who went mad after seeing her district partner beheaded the year before Johanna Mason's victory.

How can this be real? It seems too horrific to be real. She's never actually seen the Games – President Coin has outlawed anyone from watching them – but she can't imagine it.

She closes the book and looks over at Prim, who is sleeping peacefully all curled up in the blankets. Sometimes she wonders if it is a huge conspiracy.

* * *

The Hunger Games, as she reads in Prim's book, begins on the first Sunday in July when twenty-four children, a boy and a girl from each of the twelve districts in Panem, are reaped and brought to the Capitol. They train for a week or so and then are put into an arena in an undisclosed location where they fight to the death until a lone victor remains. After, the victor is bathed in riches and the arena is turned into museum for wealthy Capitolites to visit.

Now that she thinks about it, with this timeline, it makes sense that her father would rarely be in the compartment in July if he were watching it.

It took her a few days but she finally convinced Peeta to use his preliminary access to get them inside the Command room after hours. She needs to see it with her own eyes before she believes it. They wait a week and on a Monday night, after Katniss is sure the Games have started, they leave their compartments.

"If we get caught," Peeta warns her as they approach Command, "we are going to get in so much trouble."

Katniss shrugs and nods toward the machine that will read Peeta's fingerprint for access.

"No, Katniss, I'm serious," he says. "You have to understand, if we're caught in Command this late, it's bounds for dismissal."

Dismissal. Katniss has never heard of anyone who has been kicked out of District Thirteen, even though it is a punishment they hear about often.

"If you're so scared about it," she says, although she's kind of shaking at the thought of being let loose outside with absolutely nothing and nowhere to go. "Why are you letting us do it?"

Peeta looks down at his feet. "Because you won't believe it until you see it," he whispers. When he looks up, she wants to ask if he's seen it before – and if he has why he hasn't told her – but she doesn't need to. "I caught a few minutes of the reaping last week before they pushed me out for being underage. It's sick, Katniss."

He presses his fingertip to the reader and the door unlocks. The lobby of Command is empty and Peeta quickly looks around the rooms before grabbing a tablet television and pulling her into an empty conference room. He quietly closes the door and presses a few security codes into the tablet.

And she's watching the Seventy-fourth Annual Hunger Games.

"Is this –?"

Peeta nods his head and the two look down. There is a dark-haired giant walking with a tiny girl with dark skin. The girl keeps a look out, whistling quietly to a pair of birds that seem to be following them. Katniss thinks back to her schooling, although she's learned more from rereading Prim's books than she ever did from the time she and Peeta spent in the classroom, and thinks those birds are mockingjays.

"Do you know anything about them?" she asks.

"The boy is from District Twelve, the girl's from...District Eleven, I think," he replies. "I only saw his reaping. He volunteered for his brother." Then he taps the screen and a list of statistics lights up on the tablet. "Yep."

Katniss lets her eyes scan the statistics.

_Hawthorne, Gale. D12. 18 Y/O. Odds: 10-1. Reaping: Volunteer (Hawthorne, Rory – 12 Y/O). Heart rate: 100. Blood pressure: 145/90. Training score: 11. Weapons held: Bow and arrows, knife, rope. Kill count: 2 (D1f, D4f). District Partner: Undersee, Madge (condition: alive). Distance from remaining tributes: 0.4 feet (D11f), 0.2 mile (D5f), 0.7 mile (D1m, D2f, D2m, D3m), 0.8 mile (D12f), 1 mile (D10m), 2.6 miles (D11m). Open wounds: none. Mentor: Abernathy, Haymitch (V50). Escort: Trinket, Effie. _

Her chest feels tight as she looks back to the boy's face. He situates the little girl in a tree and tells her a story before looking back out at the field, keeping his hand on the bow like a vice grip. Peeta taps the screen again and it switches to a group of four kids. The only girl keeps tossing her knives at a lizard on the ground, impaling the creature time and time again.

Katniss has seen enough. It's real now.

"You okay?" Peeta asks, pressing a button on the tablet and making the screen go black. "Katniss?"

"Why don't we help them?" she whispers.

She sees his shoulders slump. He sets the tablet down and wraps his arms around her. "We're trying."

* * *

Katniss doesn't dare look at Prim's new books. She doesn't want to know who won. Not after she'd seen even those few minutes and seen the statistics that those in the Capitol see while watching. She sticks her nose to the grind and works because she thinks she understands. She couldn't imagine having to watch Prim or Peeta on television.

For the next year she thinks about nothing but the Hunger Games. It's always in her mind. Why didn't President Coin insist they watch it? She thinks it would help those in Thirteen if they could see it. It helped her understand.

A little more than a year after she and Peeta snuck into Command, rumor of a hovercraft arrival makes its way around.

Katniss runs to Command. Peeta has been promoted to full-time worker this year and she's rarely seen him. His work is top-secret and she's asked him for details, but he keeps mum. When she arrives, she doesn't exactly know why she went there. It's not like she has any access and she can't go pounding on doors. But, she wants to know what's going on and Peeta is her best bet.

So, she sits on the ground next to the door and waits for him to exit, which is against her protocol but since when did she ever do anything she was supposed to do?

The door does not open and she sits on the ground until her lower half is numb before she sees any sign of life. From down the hallway, she sees Soldier Boggs walking with a pair of men. One is tall, with dark hair and a scruffy face. He's dressed in fancy clothes and is holding some sort of metal container shaped as a bottle. The other is slightly shorter and rounder. His hair is white and he wears a long coat that flaps as he walks.

"Yes, we've been monitoring the situation in Twelve," she hears Boggs say. "We have imaging out there that is showing complete ruins, aside from your home, Soldier Abernathy, and the rest of the Victor's Village. Everything else is destroyed."

"Any survivors?" the dark haired man says.

Boggs shrugs. "We don't know. Possibly, but it's unsafe to check at the time being. Snow still has – Katniss! What are you doing?"

She looks up at all three men and smiles sheepishly. "Um, I'm waiting for Peeta."

Boggs shakes his head, giving her a stern look, before turning to the men at his side. "Soldier Heavensbee, Soldier Abernathy, this is Katniss Everdeen. She's Soldier Everdeen's eldest daughter and one of our sharp shooters." Then he turns back to her. "And she _should_ be in her compartment like everyone else, not waiting for Soldier Mellark."

The dark-haired man snorts and unscrews his bottle, lifting it to his mouth. "This is your sniper?" he laughs bitterly. "She's, like, five."

"I'm seventeen," Katniss clarifies, still sitting on the ground.

The other man, however, smiles broadly at her. "It is a pleasure meeting you," he chuckles, reaching out to shake Katniss's hand. "I have had the honor to work with your father for the past few years. He is a fine man, Miss Everdeen!"

_Miss _Everdeen? She tries not to look surprised at the address. She hasn't been called Miss Everdeen since schooling and even then most of her teachers called her Katniss. Boggs opens the door for Heavensbee and Abernathy before turning back to her, kneeling on the ground.

"Katniss, go to your compartment," he says. "You don't need to be getting into trouble right now."

Boggs doesn't leave until she does so she's forced to go back.

* * *

The refugees from District Twelve don't even look real. Some are terribly burned and most are so skinny Peeta's father has been giving them larger portions than are normally given, breaking protocol but for good reason. Most of the adults are ready to earn their keep, such as one woman named Sae who insisted on working alongside the Mellarks in the kitchen. But the thing that surprises her the most is that there are so many children.

So many _little _children.

Most of the children in Thirteen are now teenagers. Not many people went unscathed by the sickness and, as a result, most residents have been left infertile. The thought that there were no children in Thirteen had never struck Katniss as odd before until she saw little olive-skinned babies in the arms of their mothers.

Little Posy Hawthorne, whose older brother is currently under the care of District Thirteen's most esteemed doctor, the one her own mother had trained under, seems to take everyone's heart by storm. Or, at least, that's how Katniss sees it from afar. Not many of the Thirteen residents have braved the divide between themselves and those from Twelve.

"She's pretty cute," Peeta says one day during their designated lunch hour.

Katniss turns away from Posy, who is dancing between the rows – which, Katniss notes, should be a misdemeanor offence tally against her name; Katniss and Peeta should know, they'd gone many nights without dinner because of the tallies – but no one stops her.

"It's weird seeing children," Katniss tells him.

Peeta shrugs. "I kind of like it."

Katniss steals a glance at her best friend, whose eyes are still following the little girl, who has added singing to her little dance number, and feels an odd pull in her stomach. Instead of trying to figure out what it is, she looks down at her plate and stuffs a roll in her mouth.

* * *

She finds herself watching the refugees from Twelve a lot more than she would've liked. They all seem to have something that she can't describe but she knows she doesn't have. It's something she wants. Desperately.

Due to the call of war, President Coin has issued a proclamation for those under fourteen. In Thirteen there are only a few who haven't yet received their assignments and she calls for them to leave school and attend their posts. Primrose is assigned to work under Dr. Aurelius and the first time Katniss hears someone address them both as Soldier it makes her shiver. Prim is not a soldier – she is neither fourteen nor heading into the military, but until she actually becomes a doctor she will be addressed as Soldier Everdeen, just as she and her father are called.

It is then that she realizes what those from Twelve have and she doesn't – something outside the army. In Thirteen they are soldiers and trained to be from the time they are very small. What will happen to them once the war ends, if they make it out alive? Will she still be Soldier Everdeen?

That night, during designated family time, she sneaks away. Her father is still in Command with a special override of schedule from Coin so he can placate Heavensbee and Abernathy as they attempt to make too many suggestions on how to run this rebellion. The rebellion that _Thirteen_ is planning. He will not be back until late if he returns at all and Prim is fine skipping family time to study her books on mental health. She's been assigned to work with the victors.

There is a certain closet, located two floors above their compartment hall, that Katniss and Peeta tend to hide in. Of course, that was before the hallways were full of refugees, but it is where they decided to meet the other day. Katniss sits down in the closet and waits for him. She leans her back against the wall, wondering what is taking so long. She taps her fingers on her knee, rocks back and forth, and tries not to think that he stood her up.

Just as she has given up, the door slides open and Peeta stands in the doorway. He's still dressed in uniform – so, _technically_, he is Soldier Mellark – but as quickly as he shuts the door he strips of his military jacket and rips his communicuff off his wrist. Then, he kneels on the ground and wraps his arms around her, pulling her into his lap and kissing the top of her head, as if he were the one worried that she wasn't coming and not the other way around.

"Peeta?" she asks but he shushes her and continues to rock.

"You have to promise me that if you get sent to battle you won't do something stupid and get yourself killed," he says after a few minutes.

"What are you talking about?"

Peeta hugs her closer. "We're going to war, Katniss. We actually are." He rests his cheek on the top of his head. "And I can't lose you. I can't."

She knows what this is about. Peeta, as one of the heads in Command, receives notification of procedures before anyone else. There must be an assignment call for squad formation in the coming days.

Katniss rests her head against Peeta's chest. "What will we do when the war is over?"

This is what Peeta needs right now. She knows him too well to know that if he gets lost in his head for too long he'll spiral down until he's sure she's dead, locked in a nightmare while still awake. But she needs it too – conformation that she will be something when she comes back.

She can nearly feel him grin from ear to ear. "I don't really care," he tells her. "As long as I'm doing it with you."

* * *

_Thank you for the support! 1 more part left - The Capitol!_


	13. Bonus II: The Capitol

Bonus II

* * *

"There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true."

Sir Winston Churchill

* * *

_The Capitol_

* * *

It starts with a handful of berries.

Of course, I'm not going to start there. I'm going to start at the beginning and it goes back much further than the last fifty seconds of the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games. If I was going to go all the way back to the very start, I'd start on the first day of school, tell you about the girl with the two pink braids who opened her mouth and sang more beautifully than any of the victors who use it as their talents. But, I won't bore you with the details of how I became friends with Katniss Everdeen. That's a story for a different time.

No. This is the story of the girl on fire.

* * *

She first starts to glow at the Tribute Parade.

Since our fathers work in the Control Room, our families have prime seating right next to some of the biggest sponsors. Primrose is so excited because, at twelve, she's finally allowed to bet this year on a tribute. She holds onto Katniss's hand, skipping the entire way to the City Center.

"Don't go based on the parade alone, Prim," Katniss says as we take our seats. "Wait until the interviews and the scores so you'll at least have a chance of winning."

Prim doesn't answer. Her eyes dance with the bouncing lights keeping the runway clear. Opening Ceremonies should be starting soon, so we take our seats and keep our eyes open. You don't want to miss a thing.

Katniss and Prim match tonight. Each girl has on a purple dress and I know that it took a while for the two and Mrs. Everdeen to pick them out. Katniss was complaining because she tried this dress on first and her mother made her keep trying even though she'd found the dress she wanted to wear. It sparkles in the moving light and has feathery details around her middle with a tight purple skirt. It has been attracting my eyes for most of the night at all the parties prior to the parade.

The music quiets and the national anthem begins to play. Around us, people begin to cheer. Prim shrieks in excitement.

_...Oh Capitol,_

_Your glorious diamond shine._

_A tribute to_

_The darkest days behind._

_One Horn of Plenty for us all!_

The tributes always look so much better once they've been cleaned up and dressed by their stylists. One's tributes are dressed in pink feathers and diamonds. Two's stand tall with their swords drawn. I eye the sizes and facial expressions carefully. Anyone scared during the parade won't do to bet on. It's the first thing you learn in our Betting class at school.

I like the ones who wave. Katniss nudges me when she sees tributes that she likes on first glance for a bet. After six or seven districts, we usually stop paying too much attention. There is that monster of a male tribute from Eleven we saw during the reapings –

"Who are they?" Prim yells over screams.

We turn to the last chariot and the two occupants are on fire. My eyes widen. I've never seen that before. The boy is staring out at us with a blank face, his eyes narrow. The girl, on the other hand, is attempting to wave and hold onto the chariot at the same time.

"What are their names?" Katniss asks. Her eyes are wide, the light shining crazily in the gray, as she thinks.

I look down at the program. District Twelve: Madge Undersee, 16, and Gale Hawthorne, 18. I show it to her and she nods, taking a mental note to watch out for their interviews and training scores. With an entrance like that, how could we not?

* * *

I have to go to my stylist a few days a week for touch-up work on my hair. My natural color is blond, so it keeps color nicely, but there is so much dye in my hair in specific places that my stylist likes to see me almost daily. It's because I'm a perfectionist. I couldn't just pick a color to coordinate with my outfits – like Katniss and Prim – or one that looks good with anything – which is what my brothers do. I wanted my hair to look like a sunset, with shades of oranges, reds, pinks, and golds that shine like the end of a beautiful day.

My stylist is so proud of my head that I'm on her brochure.

During the Games, almost everything closes, so aside from getting my touch-ups, I have very little that I need to do. So I wake up at noon, go to my stylist after lunch, and then get ready for the parties. Katniss and I have plans every night for the next two weeks while the tributes train.

We spend the next two weeks sipping alcohol from long-stemmed glasses. We talk about tributes, but never give away which tribute we're leaning toward supporting. We gossip about what the arena is rumored to look like and pretend that our fathers have given us information that has people falling at our feet.

And, before long, the scores come out.

We're at a party, drinking shots of Prairie Fire, when the scores come in. Everything is fairly predictable until the little girl from Eleven pulls a seven. Then the girl from Twelve pulls an eight and the boy receives an eleven – the highest score of the evening.

Katniss turns to me and rolls her eyes.

"They want us to bet on him," she slurs as we head home that night. "So, I'm not."

"Who then?"

She shrugs her shoulders, the sparkly blue dress shimmering in the light. "But I'm not...pickin' the 'leven. Too pre...dic...table. He won't win."

True to her word, she bets on Cato from Two. I take Thresh from Eleven.

And little Prim picks Madge Undersee.

* * *

The two kids from Twelve team up together and I'm glad because it means that Prim's pick won't die immediately. My first time betting, I chose a hulk from Four and he was beheaded in bloodbath. I spent the rest of the Games depressed – especially when Katniss's choice, Four's district partner Annie Cresta, ended up winning.

I don't particularly care about watching the Games live. I'd rather have the instant recap at my command. The first few days after the bloodbath are fairly boring. But it's really after the final eight that it really starts to become interesting every year. This year, however, there's something different.

There's a love story.

And everyone loves a good love story.

So do the Gamemakers – they change the rules.

After that, it seems like everyone is rooting for the girl on fire and her flame. Katniss and I, however, stick to our guns. As Katniss says, it's too predictable. There's no way that they'll win.

* * *

They do. But you knew that.

* * *

The night the Games end, when Cato dies and the star-crossed lovers board a hovercraft, Katniss drowns her sorrows in alcohol. Only, it just makes her eyes bloodshot and her cheeks so red they match her dress, and she is no happier than she was before the first shot. She has to be carried home and, since everyone is out celebrating the victory, we're alone when we get to her house.

She doesn't take losing well.

Thresh died three days before, so I had time to get over losing my bet, but for her to lose the night the Games end, when everyone else is out celebrating, is tough. Especially since Prim won – and won big.

She curls up into me in her bed. I take off my shirt and change into a pair of pajama pants I keep at her place, before letting her rest her head on my chest, her bright red hair splaying across us. She's warm to the touch from the drinks and I can tell that her head is spinning.

"You okay?"

She doesn't move for a second and then she turns to look up at me. "They won," she slurs before putting her head back down and closing her eyes.

* * *

The star-crossed lovers don't win for long though. The Quell announcement is made that the tributes will be reaped from a pool of existing victors, which means that at least Madge will be headed back in. And, given her competition now includes adults, Katniss is sure that she and her hothead boyfriend - who likes to angrily reply to Caesar Flickerman, one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet - will not win. So, unlike every other sponsor and gambler out there, Katniss doesn't put any money on the star-crossed lovers. She puts it on Finnick Odair.

Ninety-nine percent of the Capitol has fallen head over heels for Gale Hawthorne and Madge Undersee – Katniss is the one percent who is still bitter over their victory over the tribute she wanted to win.

I've always liked a good story and this is one of the best Hunger Games that I've seen. Now that they're both in the Quell, and two of them will definitely not be coming out together, it should be interesting. However, there is a part of me that's torn. The victors have already competed. A lot of girls are devastated that Finnick could possibly die in the arena.

Like last time, Prim puts her money on Madge Undersee.

* * *

The day the screen goes black, we are cast into darkness before President Snow comes onto our screens.

"My fellow citizens," he states, his face filling every screen in the Capitol. People are huddled together just to catch a glimpse of what it going on. Where did the Games go? What exactly is going?

"We are at a grave crossroads. The rebel forces have declared war on our dear country. We have fed them, clothed them, and given them adequate shelter from the elements. However." His voice turns into a harsh gravel tone as he glares. "They have decided to turn against us, but we will rise again, just as we have done before. I ask for soldiers. I ask for ammunition. We as a people must stand up for the rights of everyone!"

The war is not easy. President Snow mandates that all men eighteen and older must fight for the Capitol army against those trespassing against us. Many people are confused by the war, myself included. The well-liked victors, like Finnick and Gale and Madge, are spearheading the rebel forces and we have never had a reason to doubt them before. But now, they are attacking us.

Bombs fall. Fires spread. Many people die. President Snow sets up shelters in front of his mansion for orphaned children to rest their heads.

There are days when there is little activity in the City Center. I hide Katniss and Prim in an old apartment when bombs strike our own homes. Our mothers are missing. Our fathers are at war. I pull at my hair as I look in the mirror, seeing the blond of my roots coming through until slowly the color fades and Katniss cuts the last of it off when she takes off my overgrown curls. Her bright orange hair begins to display her dark roots as well and the two of us look absolutely ridiculous.

Prim cries because she's hungry. Katniss and I do as well, but we wait until after she's gone to sleep to do so. I hate the growling noise my body makes when it goes without food – it's something I've never heard before. We become cranky with each other and lash out. We hope for peace. We hope the rebels realize that they're wrong soon.

Or, at least I do.

* * *

On one of the days with little activity, the three of us go into the streets to try and find something to eat. We've gone through all of the cans in the abandoned apartment and our stomachs have growled for days. Without food, we will starve very soon. Prim sits on the curb while Katniss and I stare at the garbage can outside Tigris's fashion studio. I know that Katniss doesn't want to climb through trash, but I don't want to either.

"I'm going to go see if they have anything at that shelter," she says, pointing up the hill toward the president's mansion. "I'll be right back. Happy digging!"

It is disgusting. It is degrading. I shiver as I pick through the mess. Nothing in here looks edible at all and I grab a half-eaten apple before pulling myself out. My stomach growls – and it was my hard work anyway – so I bring the rotting fruit to my lips. My frown remains, but it is food. That is all that matters.

In the far distances, I can see hovercrafts. I run to take cover, forgetting momentarily about Prim. I shove the rest of the apple in my mouth before running toward her, grabbing her tiny body in my arms. She stares at something in the distance and I follow her gaze.

Not far from us, Madge Undersee and Gale Hawthorne are running through the streets. Gale is sprinting toward the president's mansion, screaming for someone named Rory, while Madge struggles to keep pace. The hovercrafts draw nearer. The streets fill. I lift Prim and go back to the hiding spot, just it in time to see Madge stop running. A bomb drops. And then another.

Double detonating bombs.

The force of the blow sends Gale flying backwards, landing on Madge as he falls. The bomb strikes the group of children, and what appear to be rebel medics, in front of President Snow's mansion. I pull Prim close to me.

And I watch Katniss Everdeen become the girl on fire.

* * *

So, there you have it. The story of the girl on fire, just not the one you expected, right, Doctor? Well, that was my girl on fire. Your girl on fire, your _Mockingjay_, is not important to me other than the fact that she gives me someone to blame. Because she lived in the Games means I lost Katniss.

No. Why would I blame President Snow? He had nothing to do with this. He was a great president, and if you disagree, why don't you take a better look at the woman you were going to put in charge. Didn't Hawthorne end up killing her? Isn't that why he's in the cell next to mine while he awaits trial? I hear him sometimes. He's the crazy one, not me.

Are you any better really? I heard your guards talk of Retribution Games. Is that where you have Prim? How dare you? You proclaim to be so high and mighty and yet – you do the same thing that you say we're so evil to do. You're sick. You're wrong. You're liars. You weren't fighting for peace. You were fighting for control.

I'm not brainwashed. Why would you say that?

Come back here! Tell me where Prim is! What are you doing to her? Please! Are you hurting her?

And get Hawthorne out of that cell! I'm trying to sleep and I can't if I keep hearing him moaning through the walls. What's he even moaning about anyway?

He won.

* * *

_So, there's the Capitol. Sorry this didn't get up last week, or even yesterday. I had some stuff going on that prevented me from putting it up. But, thank you for reading this. It's been fun to write._

_The lyrics of the national anthem are Horn of Plenty by Arcade Fire for The Hunger Games. The purple dress Katniss is wearing at the tribute parade is based on a dress by Valentino. I have a picture of it on my tumblr (link to my tumblr page is in my profile, come say hi if you like). Prairie Fire, the drink Katniss and Peeta have at the party, is a mixed drink of liquor and hot sauce. Just to clarify the ending if need be: Peeta is being interrogated as a prisoner/one of the Capitol survivors in District Thirteen._

_Thank you all so much for reading this! You've all be so great and supportive. Thank you._


End file.
